Chapter 246 — 화려한 귀환
Chapter 246
A Triumphant Return
A street washed in moonlight.
Two figures with hoods pulled low kept to the back alleys, steering clear of prying eyes.
“Lord…!”
“Tedan. Don’t make that face.”
“But—!”
“Keep it up and I’ll get mad.”
“Kh—!”
Tedan bit down on his lower lip, fighting the tears.
The sight was so absurd that Andre Wynz let out a snort, but a prickling throb in his left arm made his brow pinch again a heartbeat later.
‘It’s… inconvenient.’
Truthfully, it was more than a little.
It was very inconvenient.
‘A swordsman lost an arm. Of course it isn’t going to be fine.’
The left sleeve of Andre’s coat hung empty, flapping in the wind.
Days ago, that arm had made him the Red Lion. Now there was nothing.
All because of the bout with Batu.
‘I didn’t think he’d gotten that strong.’
When Batu demanded someone answer for the Red Lion Army’s string of defeats, Andre bared his fangs for the first time.
He might have let most any slight go, but the man’s insolent derision of his subordinates’ incompetence stoked his anger.
And the result after that—
‘—wasn’t great.’
Back at the Red Castle, Batu had at best fought him to a draw. Now he’d become someone Andre could never hope to beat.
With that strength, Batu’s tyrannical nature had grown even more blatant.
To Andre’s eyes, he looked like a man wrapped in flames, seconds from burning himself out.
If this continued, it would become truly dangerous. Andre had to decide.
He’d started this rebellion to save his men and his people, one way or another.
There was no reason to stay aboard a sinking ship.
‘But I need to see for myself whether the ship I’m boarding is that sturdy.’
Andre narrowed his eyes.
Soon—
He would know what kind of ship it was.
* * *
The letter Andre sent was simple.
He wanted to meet in person.
The place, however, was the city of Biern.
Not far from the fortress where the Host of the Star was currently encamped.
‘He moves faster than I thought. All I heard was he was quiet and bookish. Well, that’s the kind to start a rebellion, I suppose.’
What surprised Elick was Andre’s nerve.
From his point of view, this place was the jaws of a tiger, and he walked in without hesitation.
Coming in person despite the very real risk of death took guts.
It was Nameless—who had followed Elick—who seemed the most on edge.
His face showed little, but his eyes were full of worry. Easy enough to see.
He was that worried for his friend.
Elick felt a strange twinge, as if he saw himself and Sean reflected in them.
『They’re here.』
Mephisto murmured, sensing something—
Fwoosh!
Two figures dropped in front of Elick.
Men with their hoods up.
One was Tedan, whose temperament Elick knew well. The other was unfamiliar.
‘His left arm…?’
What nagged at him was the empty left sleeve.
‘Something happened.’
From that alone, Elick felt he could guess what had been going on over there.
‘The Dragonblood has started showing its frenzy.’
Dragonblood was different from human blood down to its very nature. Without steady management and measures, it easily turned toxic in every way.
Elick had the magical knowledge to manage it to some degree, but Batu apparently didn’t.
The symptoms would only grow worse.
‘If I’m to keep my promise to Sarnai, I’ll have to move faster.’
By the time that thought crossed Elick’s mind—
“Elick, Merbinger?”
A hard voice came from beneath the hood with the empty left sleeve.
Elick curled one corner of his mouth.
“You’re the Red Lion, I take it?”
Andre answered by pushing back his hood.
Elick was, inwardly, a little surprised. The man’s features were far more delicate than he’d expected.
He could almost have passed for a woman.
“I didn’t think we’d meet like this.”
“…Nor I. Short of revenge, I never imagined I’d share a room with the man who killed Sagnard.”
Sagnard. The captain he’d killed at Ketrine Fortress.
“That time, we were enemies.”
“We ‘still’ are enemies.”
Andre clipped off Elick’s words, eyes flashing.
“Still, you have some honor. You didn’t bring anyone else, as promised.”
He glanced around, confirming there were no soldiers lurking nearby. He seemed mildly surprised that Nameless, at Elick’s side, had come without any restraints.
Only for a moment.
His eyes settled again.
“I have a question.”
“Ask away.”
“I heard your proposal through Tedan. I want to hear from you directly how you intend to guarantee it.”
Elick nodded. Andre had every reason to doubt. He was being offered a favor by someone he’d never even met. It could be a trap; he’d want to test every plank before crossing.
So instead of a slick answer, Elick opened his pocket space, took something out, and tossed it to Andre.
Thump.
Andre caught it with a puzzled face—then looked genuinely startled.
A scroll wrapped in reddish, high-grade silk.
Stamped with the seal of the Imperial House.
The Ironclad Writ.
A document the Imperial family bestowed only upon first-class houses of merit.
“Take it.”
“…!”
Andre’s pupils trembled.
Elick had said he would use his Ironclad Writ to pardon the Red Lion Army’s rebellion. He hadn’t imagined he’d hand over the whole thing so easily.
“…Are you sure you can just give me this? How do you know I won’t use it elsewhere?”
One could do a great many things with an Ironclad Writ. Andre could try to trade with the Imperial House, or pull Merbinger and the Host of the Star into something ugly.
Elick only shrugged, unconcerned.
“What can I say? Then I misread you.”
“….”
“But I trust the eyes I’m using to look at you right now. I trust Lord Hermann and Lord Saylor, who hinted you were a decent man, and I trust your people, who want nothing more than for you to come back alive. If I didn’t, I’d have gulped down the March already instead of using my head like this. Wouldn’t I?”
“…!”
Andre mouthed like a goldfish, unable to speak.
Every offhand word Elick tossed out hit him squarely in the chest.
I trust my eyes, and I trust your people.
That single line shocked him to the core.
—Frontier Count. Stand with me. If the Red Lion guarding the Empire’s east stands at my side, every lever will tilt this way. What? You’ve no wish to join a power struggle? Hm. That won’t do…. Has it not occurred to you that if you won’t be my man, I might drag you into this game one way or another?
He thought first of Crown Prince Zeraitz, who, despite knowing that sitting the throne would put everything in his hands as a matter of course, hadn’t tried to persuade him when he said he wouldn’t take sides—only cast him off.
—I want to retire? Hm…? Why? Because you want to rest? And why is that?
There was also the Golden Lion, who, when his subordinate begged to lay down the duty of the Red Lion at last, refused to accept it, threw away the bond of all their years, and acted as if he didn’t exist.
If either of those two had believed in him the way Elick just had, things wouldn’t have gotten this bad.
It hurt that an enemy he was meeting face to face for the first time trusted him more than the men to whom he had devoted his life’s loyalty.
And so—
Andre couldn’t help wondering where all the buttons had first been fastened wrong.
“….”
“….”
Silence stretched between them for a moment.
[Well? Feels like it landed, right?]
『You certainly worked hard hiding your true feelings.』
Arms folded, Mephisto gave Elick a look of sheer disbelief.
He knew very well how Elick had sweated inside, worried Andre might take the Ironclad Writ and bolt.
If Andre had tried to play dumb, Elick might have turned on a dime.
[What are you saying? Me? Huh? I, what? I open my big heart, huh? And he’s so moved, huh?]
『If running your mouth on things you don’t mean isn’t a con, then what is?』
Bickering with Mephisto, Elick flicked a careless line at Andre.
“Does that answer you? Or not?”
Andre looked between the Ironclad Writ in his hand and Elick—then dropped to one knee.
Thud.
“Andre Wynz, Frontier Count of the Wynz March. I would stand beneath Merbinger’s banner. Please accept me.”
That was enough.
Tedan at his side, and Nameless behind Elick, both mirrored him, dropping to one knee and bowing their heads.
In that moment, Elick gained a new claw—the Red Lion.
* * *
News of the Red Lion’s joining spread like wildfire.
[Leader of the rebels, the Red Lion, bows to Merbinger’s banner!]
Special dispatches on the subject fanned out across the land.
The regions still under the Red Lion Army’s control threw their gates open in unison to receive the Host of the Star.
There, the banners of the Red Lion Army and the mountain tribes came down, and Merbinger’s banner took their place.
Units of the Red Lion Army posted at the front also beat a quick retreat toward the east, until only the twelve mountain tribes remained on the very front line.
[The Chanai-fu tribe annihilated!]
[Victory at the Great Siege of Barakatu—traces of the fierce battle that day.]
[Driven back to the Mnar River basin, the barbarians! Only the final battle remains.]
With the Grand Army pressing from the west and the Host of the Star from the east, the mountain tribes were steadily squeezed into a single quadrant.
The very zone they’d used as a foothold when they first flooded onto the continent.
[Final battle imminent!]
Just as the rumors swelled that the end of the war was near—
[Grand Army and Host of the Star, rendezvous!]
At last.
The Grand Army advancing from the west and the Host of the Star pushing from the east finally met.
After roughly a year isolated in the eastern marches—
It was a triumphant return.
The Talent-Devouring Mage