Ch.32Before the Snow Falls (3)

I enjoyed meeting you at last. The brief moment of respite was short-lived.

Though I regretted not seeing Airine’s face relax, Rofena’s knock at the door and message made it impossible for me to stay.

“Sir, His Excellency has requested to meet you.”

“…I suppose I should go.”

I glanced at Airine with a slight bow, and she stared at me before nodding.

The Duke. I was honestly a bit nervous.

I figured there wouldn’t be time to change my bandages if he was calling for me now, but I had no choice. Delaying could lead to who knows what kind of reaction.

“Go ahead. Rofena, call for Sir Chris.”

“Yes, miss.”

Surprisingly, Airine had nothing more to say and simply nodded once before looking away. I wondered if feeling a little disappointed was too much. But meeting the Duke was the priority, so I left the room and saw a familiar face.

I gave a small bow to Sir Chris, who seemed somewhat gloomier than usual, and he spoke to me.

“Evan, His Excellency has called for you.”

“I know. Rofena just told me.”

“…Well, don’t be too nervous. The atmosphere might be difficult to adjust to, but he’s not a bad person.”

“Is that so?”

Sir Chris seemed displeased about something. He clicked his tongue once and patted my shoulder on the side without bandages.

“Don’t be too scared. Whatever happens, it’s best to just let it go.”

“…I understand.”

Don’t be scared? What kind of person was he to say such things to me? I’ve fought assassins and black mages.

But there was no time to ask what he meant, so I just agreed. Sir Chris looked at me with worried eyes, sighed deeply, and walked past me.

“Good luck.”

By now, I was genuinely curious about what kind of person the Duke was. Why were both Airine and Sir Chris so concerned about me meeting him?

Caw-

The ominous cry of a crow made me frown. The once-blue sky was now covered with gray clouds again, just like when I first arrived. The bare trees beneath cast shadows that somehow felt ominous.

It was as if meeting the Duke was some kind of ill omen for me. I stared blankly at the scenery outside the window before turning away and beginning to walk down the corridor.

Surely, it was just my imagination.

#

The Duke resided on the top floor of the mansion.

Among the three floors of this mansion, his quarters were in the farthest corner, occupying the largest space. Unlike other areas, sunlight barely penetrated here.

The trees densely planted behind the mansion—were they meant to block sunlight from reaching the Duke’s quarters?

Though the view outside the window earlier showed it was daytime, this corridor displayed an unmistakable gloominess. Candles flickering in the darkness created a strange atmosphere. I wondered why anyone would choose to live in such darkness, and various thoughts crossed my mind.

Reasons to deliberately avoid sunlight. Childishly, I wondered if the Duke might be something like a vampire, but there were no creatures in this world that feared sunlight. So perhaps he simply disliked it? I asked the butler who guided me here, but he merely shook his head without offering any other answer.

Even the floor was made of shabby wood that creaked with each step, quite unfitting for such a luxurious mansion. While every other area used impressively expensive materials, why was the Duke’s own space furnished so poorly?

Perhaps he had an unexpectedly frugal personality. But my thoughts scattered when I spotted a door amidst the shadows of gray and black that filled this space. Unlike the shabby corridor, this door was ornate with the Yuris family crest. The butler beside me bowed his head and withdrew.

“…Um.”

I reached out slightly, but the butler, either not hearing me or ignoring me, walked away. I smiled bitterly. What was I supposed to do now? My outstretched hand fell pathetically.

I closed my eyes momentarily, took a deep breath, and looked at the door.

Below the Yuris family crest of a thorned shield was a handle. The handle was set in the mouth of a dragon, one of the guardian beasts of the Empire.

Click-

The sound was much louder than I expected when I barely touched it, making me flinch. A voice came from beyond the door—deep and imposing, perfectly matching the dark corridor.

“I am Evan Fried. I was told you called for me.”

“Enter.”

The door opened. As I gripped the handle and pushed it open, this moment felt unusually long. And as the atmosphere seeped out from beyond the door, my face began to stiffen.

I thought the corridor was dark, but what lay here was an even more oppressive and gloomy abyss. It felt like entering the maw of a beast. The killing intent emanating from all directions made my hand instinctively move to the sword at my waist.

I exhaled heavily. Knights’ armor lined the walls of the room, looking as if they might move toward me at any moment. I frowned at the sight of silver armor gleaming in the darkness, then met a pair of blue eyes swirling in the shadows.

Perhaps this was what the eyes of an anglerfish in the deep sea looked like. Darkness ready to devour me, and within it, the only predator at ease.

Those two eyes staring intensely at me brought me back to my senses. Now I understood what Sir Chris meant by “don’t be scared.” The master of this ducal residence, the Duke of Yuris, leader of one of the Empire’s five great houses, the Shield of the Empire.

The presence and pressure that Garoth Yuris exuded was not something I could easily withstand. I regulated my breathing against the killing intent that felt like it could behead me at any moment, then exhaled roughly and met that blue gaze.

If what Airine’s eyes held was a coldness that could freeze even summer, what Garoth Yuris’s eyes contained was emptiness. They held nothing. They merely gazed at whoever stood before him, with no discernible meaning in those pupils. Perhaps the atmosphere I felt upon entering this room was because of that. For the first time in my life, I faced emptiness, and I feared what I could not understand.

But I endured.

I felt that if I couldn’t withstand this gaze, I would be drawing a line, declaring this was my limit. If this atmosphere was the Duke testing me…

I drew upon my mana. The mana flowing through my veins began to permeate my body. It drove out the darkness that had penetrated deep within me, and white flames rose from my body. And when I finally shook off the pressure surrounding me, I heard his voice again.

“Excellent.”

With that single word, the darkness covering the room seemed to lift instantly. The pitch-black darkness that had obscured everything vanished in a moment. As I stared blankly at this transformation, I frowned slightly as I looked at the Duke’s now fully visible face.

He looked like the personification of a hawk. Unlike his title as the Shield of the Empire, his sharp eyes were prominent, and his neatly trimmed beard reaching his chin gave hints about his personality. The black uniform he wore, as if wrapped in darkness, and the collar he adjusted—the Duke then looked at me and continued speaking.

“Welcome. My daughter’s guard knight. I heard you were injured. Are you alright?”

“…Yes. The wounds have healed.”

He looked at my bandages in the flickering candlelight, nodded once, and spoke.

“You may sit there. I have quite a lot to say to you today. Besides, there’s something I wanted to tell you.”

Something he wanted to tell me. It sounded like he might commend me, but somehow I felt it was something different. Not commendation, but something fundamentally different.

However, the person before me was the Duke, so I simply bowed my head slightly and sat on the sofa he indicated.

“You seem a bit surprised. You’ve probably already noticed that I was testing you.”

“Yes.”

I nodded at his words.

Whatever his reason, it was clear he had been testing something about me. That darkness from earlier—I realized now it wasn’t mana. While his intimidating presence was part of it, the darkness filling this room was similar to the energy emitted by the black mage I encountered yesterday. Like the darkness that had obscured the moon and stars.

“It’s the energy a black mage emits, isn’t it?”

“…That’s right. You definitely faced a black mage. What I just released is part of the mana extracted from a black mage. It’s contained in this potion vial, and when I open the cap, it releases just like that.”

He briefly showed me a flask containing black mist, then placed it on the table and stared at me.

“Thirty years ago, when black mages attacked the Empire, we called the mana they used ‘darkness.’ What do you think is the method to drive away this darkness?”

“…If you use mana—”

“No, wrong. The way to drive out this darkness isn’t by using mana. Only by seeking help from clergy, or by someone with special mana using their power.”

After catching his breath briefly, he looked at me intently and spoke again. What I felt in his voice was full of passion. Not anger directed at something, but more like the exhilaration of someone who has discovered something mysterious. Could the special mana he was referring to be the white mana I possessed?

That guess seemed correct, as his finger was pointing at me.

“The mana you possess drives away darkness. It’s like the divine power that holy knights possess. I don’t know how you came to have such mana, but your power is definitely helpful to Yuris. Perhaps someday you might be at the forefront of the shield that protects this Empire.”

“Is that so.”

“I’m not one to beat around the bush. I believe that when talent is discovered, it should always become part of Yuris. You know better than anyone that your abilities are too good to waste as a mere guard knight.”

A streak of anxiety rose in my chest. How could I not understand what his words implied? Saying my talent was too good to waste as a guard knight clearly meant…

“Join the Yuris Knight Order. Become part of the Iron Blood, not just Airine’s guard knight.”

“…Miss’s guard knight is also part of the Iron Blood.”

When I answered like that, the Duke shook his head firmly and spoke.

“No, Airine is just Airine. That child is neither Iron Blood nor the master of Yuris yet. She’s still young, immature, and hasn’t accomplished anything perfectly. Rather than becoming the guard knight of such a child—”

“Your Excellency.”

My eyes grew cold. Was it because I heard disparaging remarks about Airine? Or was it because I found it absurd that her father would treat his daughter so trivially? Perhaps both. The brief goodwill I had felt toward those two eyes began to freeze.

He was neither worthy of being a father nor the master of Yuris. If he had shown even the slightest interest in how Airine had lived, he wouldn’t have spoken like that. If he knew what she had been doing in this ducal residence, he wouldn’t have called her young and immature.

Who in this world could pledge loyalty to someone who would belittle even his own flesh and blood, distracted by a single knight standing before him?

His image reminded me of my own parents. Not seeing a child as a child, but merely as one of many means to an end.

His love for Yuris? That much I could understand. But that was all. Though it was something I had already prepared for and had already thought about, the words that came out to him were even colder than I had imagined.

“I refuse.”

“…What?”

“I am Miss’s guard knight.”

His blue eyes flickered. But there was not the slightest change in his heart. When Airine’s eyes flickered, my heart would race, but I found it amusing that his changes didn’t affect me at all. I simply met the two eyes staring at me straight on.

“Are you refusing my offer?”

“Yes.”

“Do you not know what kind of person I am? Or do you find being Airine’s guard knight more honorable than becoming a Yuris knight?”

“I consider the position of guard knight to be honorable.”

“…If you become a knight, you’ll receive honors beyond your imagination. With your talent, you might even rise to become the knight commander. The youngest ever, a knight commander at 15.”

He spread his arms dramatically as he looked at me, but I just stared back at him with an expressionless face. My mind wouldn’t change. No matter what he said next, even if he knelt before me and begged.

Perhaps he sensed my resolve.

The goodwill in those eyes looking at me disappeared. The passion that had stirred in the emptiness vanished, and suddenly those blue eyes turned cold as if he had become a completely different person. The pressure surrounded me again. I gritted my teeth against the force that seemed like it would pin my shoulders to the ground.

“Your thoughts still haven’t changed?”

“…No.”

My answer, squeezed through gritted teeth, remained the same, and the gaze looking at me grew even colder. It was cold. Colder than when Airine looked at me. The pain was like severe cold penetrating my flesh and reaching my bones, and I could feel blood vessels rising in my wide-open eyes.

Perhaps he might try to kill me. The thought that he might kill me for refusing his offer, even though I was Airine’s guard knight, made my heart race. Should I draw upon my mana? But if I drew my sword here, I—no, Airine would—

Just as my thoughts grew complicated, all the pressure crushing me disappeared like a lie. Why?

Perhaps I was already dead?

As my focus returned and I looked ahead, I saw the Duke’s face still watching me. His hawk-like sharp eyes were directed at me, but they were no longer cold. They held greater goodwill than any I had seen since meeting him. Looking very satisfied, with even a faint smile, the Duke slowly began to speak.

“Pass.”

What did I just hear? I stared at him blankly. Pass? Could it be that all these proposals he had been asking me about…

“Airine has found a good guard knight after a long time. The future head of the family needs an eye for recognizing talent like this.”

“…You mean.”

“Yes, I was testing you. To see if you were truly suitable as Airine’s guard knight. To see if you were worthy of hearing what I have to say next. To see if the knight Sir Chris praised so highly was truly deserving.”

With a satisfied smile, he flashed his blue eyes and smiled at me.

“Now I think we can start the real conversation. Sir Evan. Don’t you agree?”

My eyes widened as I looked at him. The man who perfectly embodied the name Iron Blood, known as the Shield of Yuris, was far different from what I expected.

The rather playful smile on his face was so unlike what I knew.

Perhaps this was what Sir Chris meant when he said “don’t be surprised no matter what happens.” I looked at the Duke who was still watching me, then sighed and bowed my head.