Kays Translations

Chapter 19: How to Spend Time in a Carriage.

Ren rode in a Bureau of Mysteries carriage toward Eupheim’s noble district.

Ulysses ruled the city, but several other nobles maintained residences there as well. Owning a mansion in Eupheim was considered a mark of status regardless of one’s faction.

“…Yawn.”

Ren yawned as the carriage rocked beneath him.

According to the coachman, reaching the Ignat mansion would take another twenty minutes.

He had stayed up later than usual because it was his first night in Eupheim, and now he was a little sleepy.

Resting during the journey might be the best solution.

“…I’ll sleep.”

He would only relax for twenty minutes or so.

To avoid appearing before Ulysses with a drowsy face, Ren closed his eyes.

—He realized almost immediately that he was dreaming.

Ren fell asleep the moment his eyes closed and began dreaming at nearly the same time. Unlike his usual dreams, however, this one was strangely vivid. All five of his senses felt perfectly clear.

He could only watch the scene as an observer.

A vast number of knights had been mobilized.

Their swords were top-class as a matter of course, and the magic users among them were equally exceptional. The assembled force represented the strength that made Leomel the world’s foremost military power.

With magic weapons added to such troops, any country would avoid confronting them.

Ren didn’t recognize the location, but it was probably the gate of the Ignat mansion.

“Well, well. This is quite the dangerous gathering while my master is absent.”

Unlike the present, the scene appeared to take place in the depths of winter. A thin layer of snow covered the paving stones.

An elderly gentleman stood before the gate and received the multitude of knights.

Many of them trembled with tension. Even the elite knights of the Lion’s Holy Office standing in the foremost ranks had sweaty palms. None dared take their eyes from Edgar, and every one of them appeared stretched to the limit.

One knight stepped out from the formation.

“Sir Edgar, you’ll accompany us to the Imperial Capital.”

“Hmm. Why is that?”

“…You must understand. This concerns the incident in which His Highness was abducted.”

“Heh. It seems you’re concerned about the incident’s connection to our house.”

“Enough! This is no occasion for jokes, and I refuse to believe a man of your experience fails to understand that!”

Edgar sighed and removed his jacket.

Despite the winter cold, he showed no concern as he stood in a white shirt and suspenders.

Then he rolled up his sleeves and released a breath of white mist.

“My apologies, but I can’t comply.”

The knights drew their swords as one.

Several hundred men immediately assumed battle positions.

Edgar looked up at the winter sky with a lonely expression.

Then he turned toward the Ignat mansion. His hands and fingertips trembled, and he couldn’t stop the quivering around his eyes and mouth.

Not a single person remained inside the mansion. Edgar himself had locked it only moments earlier.

Although he knew the day might never come when the doors opened again, he had carefully put away the key.

When Edgar faced the knights once more, they saw tears flowing down his cheeks.

“I shall warn you one final time. If you withdraw, I won’t draw my swords.”

“You know we can’t do that.”

“Then must we fight?”

“If that’s what you choose. We’re required to detain you and search the mansion.”

“…That’s troublesome.”

Edgar’s tears fell onto the snow covering the paving stones.

The snowfall soon erased every trace of them. Watching it happen, Edgar smiled bitterly at himself.

“This mansion is my very soul. It’s proof that I served House Ignat, and I ask that you leave it undisturbed. Whatever reasons you may possess, this is something I can’t surrender.”

There was no longer any path except to cross swords.

Neither side needed to say another word for that conclusion to become certain.

The knights stepped forward before Edgar could seize the initiative.

At that instant, the elderly gentleman disappeared.

Only the place where his shoes had stood remained free of snow.

The flakes carried on the surrounding wind wavered irregularly for a heartbeat.

“…What?”

Before blood could spray from the chest of the knight in the front rank, two silver swords had already pierced his body.

Then the entire scene changed at once.

Edgar had suffered grave injuries during the battle at the Ignat mansion, but he escaped and reached a hideout Ulysses had prepared.

One of House Ignat’s attendants nursed him, and his life was saved.

He paid a terrible price. One eye was gone, forcing him to wear an eyepatch, and his left arm had been replaced with a prosthesis.

Ignoring those losses, Edgar calmly asked the attendant the question he most needed answered.

“How much time has passed?”

“…A very long time.”

“Then tell me what occurred while I slept.”

Ulysses had died in the Baldor Mountains, and a new hero had arisen in Leomel.

Learning those facts, Edgar wept in shame that he alone had survived.

“…Sir Edgar, you should do what remains within your power.”

The attendant spoke through her own tears.

“There’s nothing within my power. Although I was their butler, I failed to serve my master and Lady Fiona when they needed me. What would you have me do now?”

“…We attendants don’t know either. But even if you take your own life, our master won’t come to welcome you.”

The Ulysses they knew certainly wouldn’t.

The two servants of House Ignat looked at one another and quietly wept again.

At first, Edgar became a wanderer without purpose.

House Ignat no longer existed in Leomel, and he passed his days thinking of his master and Fiona.

Then, in a corner of a town beyond Leomel’s borders, he murmured:

“…It appears many matters still remain hidden and require investigation.”

His voice blended into the noise of the town.

“This old body has one final duty. Before I join my master, I shall accomplish what must be done.”

The true meaning of those words remained unclear, but the vision showed Edgar traveling to many different places.

Ren was forced to witness a long, winding span of time compressed into an instant.

Eventually, Edgar returned to Leomel after many years away.

A Leomelian knight discovered him. Once the report spread, forces including knights of the Lion’s Holy Office were dispatched to his hiding place.

Naturally, Edgar noticed them and fled.

But with one eye gone and a prosthetic arm, he could no longer fight as he once had. Escaping them completely proved difficult.

He entered a town’s slums and leaned against the grimy outer wall of a house.

During his travels, Edgar had begun pursuing a certain being.

Having reached this point, however, he closed his eyes and prepared for death.

“If I have worked this hard, perhaps my master will finally welcome me.”

Hurried footsteps approached.

“My master, Lady Fiona… Your unworthy butler will soon join you. Please permit me to serve at your side once more.”

Edgar waited for his final moment.

“…What?”

The knights who should have arrived suddenly collapsed to the ground, every one of them.

There was no blood. Each had simply been struck hard in the neck or abdomen and rendered unconscious.

Confronted with a sight he had never anticipated, Edgar noticed someone nearby wearing a filthy robe.

“You’re Sir Edgar, correct?”

“…You don’t appear to be a knight.”

“That’s true. I’m closer to an enemy of the knights—no, an enemy of Leomel.”

The stranger remained hidden beneath the robe until he lowered his hood.

He was still a boy, with finely formed and androgynous features.

The boy approached Edgar, lifted the old man onto his back, and began walking before Edgar could overcome his surprise.

“I was searching for you. I thought you might possess some of the information I’m pursuing.”

“…I don’t understand. Why are you pursuing it as well?”

“Because I have an objective of my own. What other reason would there be?”

The boy kicked off the paving stones and raced over the rooftops.

His steps were so swift and light that he seemed to fly. Edgar could only murmur, “Hmm.”

Apparently, the time hadn’t yet come for him to join his departed master.

“Young man, may I ask your name?”

As they fled the town, Edgar asked the name of the boy who had somehow found and rescued him.

Without slowing, the boy answered:

“I’m Ren Ashton—the great sinner who took the lives of the White Saint and the dean of the academy.”

The enormity of that introduction left Edgar speechless.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

“—Sir. Lord Ren Ashton.”

Ren awoke when the coachman shook his shoulder and called his name.

A moment earlier, he had been witnessing a dream in which years of events had been compressed together.

…What was that?

Had it been a memory from another possible timeline?

In that world, Ren Ashton and Edgar had formed some sort of connection and begun acting together. That was all Ren could understand.

He had no idea why he had dreamed it or why the vision had been shown to him.

It resembled the dream he had experienced long ago after Yelquq abducted him.

Still dazed, Ren rubbed his eyes and looked at the coachman.

“Sorry. I fell asleep.”

“No, I apologize for waking you. We’re almost at the mansion.”

The carriage had stopped at a point roughly ten minutes from the Ignat mansion on foot.

It could proceed no farther because knights had sealed the road.

According to them, something unusual had been detected in the underground waterways, and an emergency inspection was underway.

“It appears we can only continue on foot for the time being…”

“Then I’ll walk. There are plenty of knights in this area.”

Ren opened the carriage door himself, landed lightly on the paving stones, and bowed to the coachman holding the reins before setting off on foot.

…Oh. They really have blocked it.

The road was closed a dozen meters or so ahead.

As Ren passed the knights, one of them called out.

“Hey, young man. Where are you going?”

“I’m visiting Marquis Ignat’s mansion farther down this road.”

“…M-Marquis Ignat’s mansion?”

The brief exchange left the knight staring in surprise.

For the knights, Ulysses was effectively a direct superior even though they served Leomel itself. The statement was impossible to ignore.

Yet they didn’t believe Ren was lying.

They had watched him step out of a Bureau of Mysteries carriage nearby.

No one ordered him to stop, so Ren continued without hesitation.

After walking for several minutes, he saw the Ignat mansion.

Its enormous gate had astonished even Licia. Approaching it directly made the scale even clearer—the estate looked large enough to be the castle of a small kingdom.

Huge, Ren thought.

Then he reconsidered.

“…It’s huge.”

The second time, he deliberately said it aloud.

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