Chapter 241 - The Social Gathering
Only nobles of viscount rank and above attended the social gathering hosted by the Imperial Family.
With the lowest tier of nobles absent, the knights absent, and the bourgeoisie absent, there were not many people at the gathering.
Only those among the central nobles who could be called elders were present, and they had already scanned one another’s faces.
They had confirmed who had come and what level of people were present.
Then they saw one face. He was the person who had arrived latest among the central nobles.
“…Something has happened.”
“I do not know what it is, but this is clearly no ordinary occasion.”
“It seems His Majesty has decided to make something happen in earnest. This is the first time I have seen that person accept an invitation to a social gathering and appear.”
The nobles swallowed dryly at the appearance of a face none of them had expected.
“Lord Chancellor.”
“Count Baha. You are still alive?”
“By good fortune, yes.”
The highest-ranking noble among those gathered bowed and greeted the old man.
He was an old man dressed shabbily, thin and withered like a skeletal old tree. However, it was plainly true that he was the largest person among them.
What filled that size was not flesh and muscle, but power. The Chancellor, who had served two emperors, laughed softly.
“It feels as though I can live again now that I have come to Parfe after so long. I never thought the delegations setting foot in the Imperial Palace would drive even me back to my residence.”
“I was truly surprised when I heard the news as well. To think that, because of the delegation Wisdom sent due to the war with the East, all of the Imperial Family’s personnel, including you, Lord Chancellor, had been withdrawn.”
The Chancellor of the Empire laughed softly.
“Is it not a war between Great Families, the first in eighty years? The Empire is caught between them. We have to be as careful as possible about information leaks.”
“Then do you know anything about the youngest blood kin of Millesdusk who drove out that delegation?”
“Hoho. Did you come to me for the sake of asking that question, Count Baha?”
“Everyone here is curious, not only I.”
The eyes of every noble were fixed on the Chancellor’s threadlike eyes and thick lips.
Even so, the Chancellor laughed emptily.
“What would you do, asking such a thing of this hundred-year-old man? You young people must have far greater ability to act than I do.”
“Everyone here sent people and formally requested an audience with that blood kin, but we were all ignored.”
“He arrived late and tore out every root Wisdom had put down as a delegation, without leaving a single one behind. He is no ordinary snake, so there is no way such a simple method would work.”
“Lord Chancellor. Please teach us a method.”
The central nobles bowed their heads to him as he stood comfortably with his hands behind his back.
The Chancellor, the man who stood at the very peak of the powerful ministers and served as their leader, spoke with a gentle smile.
“To catch a tiger, one must enter the tiger’s den. To catch a bear, one must enter the bear’s den. To catch a snake, one must enter the snake’s den. Therefore—”
“In that case, Chancellor, do you know what one must do to catch a Snowfield Giant?”
“……”
Thud. Thud.
A man who made the sound of a giant’s footsteps calmly mentioned how to catch a giant.
“…Your Highness Milant.”
When the Chancellor bowed his head, the difference in size between him and the Margrave became even more tremendous.
The physical difference between the two was so great that the Chancellor looked about the size of one meal on the Margrave’s plate.
The man who could be called a giant even at this social gathering continued speaking.
“To catch a Snowfield Giant, one must first kill a sheep. You have to lure it with the smell of blood.”
As he spoke, Margrave Milant opened the cork of a wine bottle.
Without any tool, he grasped it with his fingers and pulled it out as it was.
With a clear sound, the wine that had seen the light of the world fell into a glass. It was a wine as red as blood.
“Once three or four Snowfield Giants have gathered because of the smell of blood spread like that, forty knights clash with them directly and cut off their heads. That is all there is to it.”
The Margrave lifted the wineglass. In his hand, it looked as small as a whiskey glass.
“The oldest and most effective method of dealing with an enemy is still to face them directly, is it not?”
“You speak the truth.”
The Chancellor stiffly raised his head and met the Margrave’s face.
The king of the borderland, meeting his gaze, smiled and drank the wine he had just poured.
The wine that had filled the glass showed its bottom after a single mouthful.
Even so, the Margrave’s expression as he looked at the glass was not pleasant.
“Central liquor is watery after all. It is so sweet that I cannot tell whether I am drinking a beverage or alcohol.”
After setting down the glass, he looked not at the Chancellor, but at the powerful ministers.
“If there is something you want, clash with it directly. Well, I doubt you know anything about that.”
An icy silence settled over the hall, and in the midst of it, the Chancellor drew a verbal blade.
“Have you come alone today? I do not see the subordinate you usually cherish. He was a knight whose hair was unusually white, so he remained in my memory.”
There was no rise or fall in the Chancellor’s voice, but everyone present focused on a single point.
A subordinate knight whose hair was unusually white.
Because that white hair implied another possibility, the Margrave slowly shook his head.
“I did not expect an old conspiracy theory to come from someone as esteemed as the Chancellor. It seems I misjudged you.”
“I am not speaking of a conspiracy theory. I merely mentioned the visible fact of his white hair, hair as white as the snow of the North.”
“Is that so?”
The Margrave laughed softly and turned his massive body toward the entrance.
“He will arrive soon. I attached him as another person’s guard.”
“…When you say another person…”
“That other person will also arrive with my subordinate behind him. He is coming now, in fact.”
When the Margrave gestured with his chin, everyone’s head turned in that direction.
The nobles standing near the entrance had, in truth, already been looking there even before the Margrave hinted at it.
That was because something had brushed past their skin like a wind blowing through an open window.
That something was not cold, but chilling. It was frigid and piercing, a cold fundamentally different from the North and from winter.
The chill unique to the dead who had lost their lives upon cold earth covered the social gathering hall.
“You are late, Fifth Son.”
“The Imperial Palace is rather wide.”
“Your Highness.”
Pale, who followed behind the Youngest Son, bowed his head to his superior.
Only then did the powerful ministers realize who the person the Margrave had assigned a guard to was.
The Fifth Son of Millesdusk. The one who had made the doors of the Imperial Palace, which the emperor had locked, open again.
That young blood kin had triumphantly accomplished what even the Chancellor himself had failed to do and had remained in the Imperial Palace.
The Chancellor, who had advised the powerful ministers to clash directly, set an example himself.
“It is a pleasure to meet you for the first time, Fifth Son. I am Gunter, Chancellor of the Empire.”
The old man, standing as upright as bamboo, bowed his head first.
After looking at him for a moment, the Fifth Son responded with an introduction of the same kind.
“Dante Black Millesdusk. The Fifth Son of Millesdusk, the Great Family of the East.”
Then, glancing at the knight standing behind him, he said,
“Since I am the only foreigner among those who received invitations, I borrowed the Margrave’s help and brought a guard. I hope you will not mind too much.”
“Of course not. It is only natural that you would be concerned.”
“Is that so? Your eyes seem to say that you find it unexpected.”
The nobles thought that made no sense.
It was not that reading the Chancellor’s thoughts from his eyes made no sense. It was that reading anything from those threadlike eyes made no sense.
The eyes, from which it was difficult to even see the color of the pupils, disappeared completely as the Chancellor bowed his head.
“What I think is not important. Both you and I are merely guests of a sort.”
Furthermore, if there were guests, there naturally had to be the one who had invited them.
The eyes of three people, including the Margrave, the Chancellor, and the Youngest Son, focused on the enormous door on the opposite side of the social gathering hall.
“He has arrived.”
After the Margrave’s calm words, Pale’s shoulders flinched.
Only then did all the attention of the central nobles turn toward the door, which seemed twice as tall as a person.
GROOOOOOAN—
The door prepared solely for one bloodline within the social gathering hall opened.
With a heavy noise, the thing that had separated outside from inside disappeared, and the master of this land revealed himself.
The Emperor of the Empire. The symbol of absolute supremacy took his place in the social gathering hall.
To his left and right, the Crown Prince and the Princess walked one step behind him, side by side, and three steps behind them were the Three Generals.
“Your Majesty.”
“My younger brother. You have come all the way here from that cold land.”
The Margrave gave a silent bow, and the emperor received it with a nod.
“It was Older Brother’s summons, so as the younger brother, I naturally had to come.”
“It seems everyone else who received an invitation has also come.”
The emperor’s eyes moved from his younger brother to the subordinate, colleague, and old friend with whom he had long governed the realm.
The Chancellor bent deeply before the golden eyes looking at him.
“Chancellor Gunter greets Your Majesty.”
“It has been a long time.”
“Seven months and fourteen days. Every night I spent after leaving the Imperial Palace was as painful as lying upon shards of glass.”
“There will be no more need for that. The Great Families no longer have business with the Empire. The war is theirs, not ours. Is that not so?”
The emperor’s golden eyes moved toward the bloodshot eyes.
The Youngest Son nodded and received his words.
“I too will soon leave Parfe, so I can only be grateful that you have prepared such a gathering before I go.”
“Enjoy yourself to your heart’s content before you leave.”
The nobles beneath the Chancellor did not show it outwardly, but they were startled.
To think the emperor would say such a thing to a blood kin of the East, someone who was not even an imperial citizen.
At today’s social gathering, where only high-ranking nobles had gathered, the emperor had invited even the Fifth Son, despite the presence of the Chancellor and even the Margrave.
Furthermore, the fact that the Margrave himself had assigned his cherished subordinate as his guard said enough.
Right now, the Youngest Son was perhaps receiving even greater protection from the Imperial Family than Chancellor Gunter.
Lastly, the emperor looked at his son.
“Crown Prince. You worked hard dealing with the delegations of the Great Families.”
“Thank you.”
“Also, those gathered here have the right to know what happened inside during the seven months the Imperial Palace closed its doors. Fulfill that right for them.”
“Yes.”
The Crown Prince stood before the powerful ministers and the Chancellor for the first time in seven months.
At the same time, the Chancellor’s charcoal-dark eyebrows rose faintly.
“I am Exil Kaiser Rosephilia, Crown Prince of the Empire.”
The Crown Prince’s voice as he introduced himself was full of strength.
It was a voice far firmer than when he had been bedridden from trauma. It was even better than his healthy self of the past.
Because of that, the Chancellor’s eyebrows moved little by little as he examined every part of the Crown Prince.
Perhaps because he had suffered quite a bit among the delegations for seven months, he looked thinner than the Chancellor remembered.
Not that his cheeks had ever been plump seven months ago…
‘His atmosphere has changed.’
The same thought spread like a spark through the minds of the Chancellor and the powerful ministers.
On the other hand, the Margrave, who had not seen his nephews and nieces except when they were very young, raised the corner of his mouth in a long smile.
“Those are eyes that even the blizzards of the borderland could not obscure.”
At least Pale and the Youngest Son knew that, by the Margrave’s standards, this was high praise.
That was how much Crown Prince Exil once again proved his presence to the powerful ministers and the Chancellor.
“The Great Families of the West and East came to the Empire, which stands in the center, in order to request support and an open road for their war.”
Unlike before, the emperor did not interfere with the Crown Prince’s words or actions in the slightest.
In the past, he would have added remarks such as telling him to summarize only the main points, or saying that it was fine to state only the result.
Yet now, not a trace of that could be seen.
Therefore, the Chancellor’s narrow eyes looked back and forth between the emperor and the Crown Prince.
‘It seems the relationship between the two of them has improved greatly…. If so, there must certainly be a reason.’
The Chancellor nodded as though listening attentively to the Crown Prince, while his narrow eyes stared intently at the foreigner.
‘…The Fifth Son of Millesdusk. That man has clearly dug deep into the Imperial Family. But how?’
While his thoughts linked one after another, the Crown Prince’s words continued.
“The Empire attempted to open a transaction with the West, which had visited the Imperial Palace first. However, under the pretext of their long friendly relationship with the Empire, they continued to put forward only burdensome conditions.”
“Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
A voice that was old, yet absolutely impossible to ignore, came from among the guests.
“Forgive me for interrupting, but I, Chancellor Gunter, wish to ask one thing.”
“What you wish to ask can surely wait until Older Brother has finished speaking, Chancellor.”
The Princess spoke with her golden eyes narrowed, but the Crown Prince remained warm.
“I permit it.”
The Chancellor bent at the waist and continued speaking.
“What this old man wishes to ask Your Highness is what view Your Highness holds toward the Great Families.”
“What view do you mean?”
“The Empire is the older brother. The Great Families are the younger siblings. This is the perception implicitly laid between the four Great Families and the Empire.”
“…Chancellor. A blood kin of the East is also present here.”
“That is precisely why I wish to ask even more.”
Chancellor Gunter stood between the blood kin of the East and the Crown Prince as he asked,
“Does Your Highness the Crown Prince intend to keep the Great Family of Millesdusk as a younger sibling, or do you intend to take it as a dear friend?”