episode_0185

“……”

While taking a sip of the black tea brought by the butler, I narrowed my eyes and tried to read the subtle and complex atmosphere flowing between my son, William, who was looking at me with a faint smile as if saying, ‘Did I do well?’, and the elf from the prairie, who was trembling with fear.

It wasn’t unusual for William to associate with unexpected people, so it wasn’t strange for him to suddenly bring in peculiar individuals.

He hires and trades with witches, wizards, demi-humans, and even the Princess, saying they are necessary for his work, so adding one more wouldn’t be a problem.

But this time, the problem was that the person was an elf from the prairie.

It had been hundreds of years since the Empire and the prairie fought fiercely, and although they were now a race that had shaken off a lot of resentment and were getting along well, it was inevitable that there would be awkwardness between the Hume County and the prairie elves.

And on a personal level, there were still those who held grudges or resentments against the Empire, even more so.

The resentment towards the Empire was, in fact, directed at the Hume County, as the Hume Count had been in charge of responding to the prairie nomads for generations, so the resentment the prairie held towards the Empire was highly likely to be directed at the Hume County.

It wouldn’t be a problem if they were tribes that had exchanges with our family, but judging from the elf’s attire, he was from the northern prairie, where the Empire’s influence was quite weak.

They are busy enough just trying to survive, but those guys contacted William in the Imperial capital, not in the border area or my territory?

Because they are interested in clothes?

That’s quite suspicious.

Of course, they might really be interested in clothes and have struggled to come all the way here, as they are the type to act so lightly, but there were too many suspicious points to just reassure myself.

“William.”

“Yes.”

“I want to talk to this person alone, so please leave us for a moment.”

I stared at the elf with languid eyes and asked William to leave us alone.

William, who widened his eyes and glanced at the elf, cautiously opened his mouth, carefully watching my mood.

“Um… is it okay to leave this person alone?”

“Do you think I’m going to eat him? It won’t take long, so don’t worry.”

“Okay…”

William sent an anxious gaze, but without further ado, he quietly got up from his seat and left the drawing-room.

The elf looked at William pitifully, like a puppy seeing its owner leave, but William had already stepped out the door long ago.

“Heuk…”

With William gone, no sound was heard in the drawing-room except for the elf’s intermittent gasps.

“……”

“Ugh…”

I slowly pressured the elf, using silence as a weapon.

Although there are many prairie elves who fear me, there was no one who was so afraid.

Judging from how quickly he became friendly with William, he doesn’t seem to have a timid personality, but his attitude looks like a criminal being dragged to the execution ground, so it felt like a thief feeling guilty.

“What’s your name?”

“S, Stephan… Stephan of the Ice Moss tribe…”

“Ice Moss tribe…”

The Ice Moss were those who lived in the northernmost part of the nomads.

Their size is also small, and the distance is so far that they are not a tribe with frequent exchanges.

I occasionally encounter them when gathering nomad tribal chiefs in one place for reasons such as succession of titles or major events.

Since there are so few opportunities to get involved, my impression of the tribe or tribal chief is not very strong.

If I had to say, the tribal chief and the tribe have a strong feeling of being simple and gentle.

“Is Grigori still the tribal chief? It hasn’t been that long, so I think it will be the same…”

“Yes… that’s right, Grigori is still the tribal chief.”

“I see.”

Since that person is not one to cause trouble, if the tribal chief is the same, then nothing has happened to that innocent tribe.

Then, did he really come because of clothes?

Was there anything among William’s works that would suit the tastes of the nomads?

“Hmm…”

“Hwik…!”

If it’s really because of clothes, why is he having a seizure every time I make a trivial movement?

I don’t particularly remember running into him, so it can’t be because something happened between us…

“Did something happen between you and my son?”

“Y, Yes…? What are you talking about…?”

The elf’s eyes are shaking wildly.

It seems like something really happened.

“The way you keep looking at me, and the way you’re acting like you’ve committed a deadly sin, it would be strange if nothing happened.”

“……”

“My son doesn’t seem to care that much, so it doesn’t matter if I just let it go, but the way you’re acting makes me care even if I don’t want to.”

I paused for a moment and picked up my teacup.

I slowly sip the tea, dropping the elf, who is trembling, into the suffocating silence.

“So, what happened?”

And I lightly put strength in my eyes and threw a question at the elf with a little confidence.

“Th, th… thueuk…”

The elf, who is shaking his legs, is making an unintelligible sound, moving his lips wildly as if he wants to say something.

“T, the truth is.”

After waiting leisurely with my chin on my hand, a word finally popped out.

“While trading with William… I made a slight slip of the tongue about Hume…”

“Me? You made a slip of the tongue about me?”

“Yes…”

“Hoo…”

I taught him that no matter what, he should not easily overlook insults to the family, but he is going to generously overlook this?

Or did he bring him here so that I could deal with him directly?

Suddenly, the story became interesting.

“I want to hear in detail what you said.”

“Yes…? N, no, even so, that’s…”

“You did it in front of my son, so can’t you do it in front of me?”

“……”

The elf dropped his head down as if resigned.

And he took a deep breath and closed his eyes tightly.

“While trading with William, while talking about what we wanted from each other… um… we don’t have much, so we said… don’t ask for unreasonable conditions… if you’re too greedy, th…the butcher Hume will come…”

“…?”

The elf was desperately trying to explain, but he stuttered so badly that it took a while to understand what he meant.

‘If you’re too greedy, Hume will come.’

It is a saying that arose because all the prairie raiders who were too greedy lost their lives to the Hume County’s knights.

It’s not a wrong saying, and it’s not like they made it to insult us, but rather to use the fools who didn’t keep the line as a lesson, so I didn’t have any particular feelings about that saying.

The nickname butcher is also a karma that I have to bear, so I don’t feel that bad.

But to use that saying in front of William of all people.

“Puhahaha! Ahahaha!”

After understanding the situation the two had gone through, laughter burst out reflexively, and the atmosphere I had barely managed to maintain collapsed in an instant.

Judging from the way he is trembling in fear, he must have used it without knowing.

In the countryside, there are many people who don’t even know the face of their lord, let alone the emperor, so it’s no different in the prairie.

And who would think that the clothes that he became interested in enough to come out of the prairie were made by the son of the Hume Count?

It was truly an unlucky situation.

“…?”

“Keuheuk, keuheup… I’m really going crazy…”

I barely managed to calm my laughter and looked at the elf, who was trembling without knowing why.

“You.”

“Yes…!”

“It’s not my place to interfere with what you use in the prairie, but be careful outside the prairie, I’m sure you’ve already felt it to the bone without me having to say it.”

“Yes… that’s right…”

“Then I’ll end this story here, there won’t be a second time.”

Neither William nor I are petty enough to take a commoner’s mistake seriously, so we can easily let this go.

“Yes…! Th, thank you…”

I smiled as I watched the elf, who was so disciplined that he was about to slam his head into the table, bowing deeply, and picked up the bell in the corner of the table and shook it lightly.

“Did you call, Count?”

“Call William for me.”

“Yes, I understand.”

_

I don’t know what my father did, but while I was away, Stephan showed considerable change.

His complexion brightened, his expression softened, and his eyes towards my father were filled with respect and faith, not fear.

It hasn’t even been 20 minutes, how can a person change like this?

Is this the eloquence of a nobleman trained in politics?

I felt fear at my father’s eloquence, which seemed to have a hypnosis app, and sat down in my seat.

“Well, then, let’s continue the story we were about to have.”

“Yes.”

The story that started as soon as I sat down in my chair.

“Let’s have you discuss the more detailed story with the staff in the territory on your way back.”

“Yes, I understand.”

It ended very smoothly.

It’s because Stephan showed an almost infinitely positive answer to what my father said, even though I don’t know what happened while I was away.

Of course, it was possible because my father also presented reasonable conditions…

In my life, I’ve never seen a deal end with ‘How about this?’ ‘Yes, that’s good.’ without even a single negotiation.

He didn’t even ask why he offered such conditions.

“I think the story is almost over, can I go now?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, I’ll go first, William, work hard, and I hope you have a good exchange with our son.”

“Yes! I will keep that in mind!”

“Haha, keep that in mind, doing it moderately is enough.”

“Yes!”

“……”

I fell into serious thought as I looked at Stephan, who was bowing so much that his waist was about to bend in half.

Does my father really have a hypnosis app?

Looking at that, it doesn’t seem like a joke, so I’m starting to get really scared now.

It can’t be…?