Chapter 142
Varkas replied in a calm voice and slowly straightened himself.
Her eyes, hazy as if fevered, blankly followed him.
Just as he was about to turn away reluctantly after staring into those eyes for a long while, her slender fingertips caught on his sleeve.
“You have to come quickly.”
“......”
“It’s inconvenient in many ways if you’re not beside me attending to me.”
He bit the flesh inside his cheek with his molars.
Only after wetting his burning throat with blood and saliva could he barely produce a voice.
“...I will return soon. Please take a nap while you wait.”
He gently swept back her slightly disheveled hair and quietly left the room.
When he breathed in the cold air pooling in the corridor, the inside of his body, which had burned as if he had drunk strong liquor, settled a little.
He roughly swept his hair back and gave an order to the attendant waiting in the corridor.
“Prepare bathwater in the sauna room. Also set aside clothes for me to change into.”
Then, as he strode away, he felt his trousers tightening painfully and let out an impatient sigh.
“There is no need to light a fire. Tell them to prepare water as cold as ice.”
***
Lowell Draven wet his lips with the fine wine the servants had brought and looked out the window at the view of Raedgo Castle.
As befitted the base of a powerful house whose influence extended not only across the East but also over parts of the north and south, there was not a single lax corner anywhere.
Inside the enormous fortress surrounded by double walls, functional stone buildings stood in orderly rows, and between them, canals carrying clear water spread out like a spiderweb.
At the front of the castle were massive barracks and training grounds, which, even at a glance, seemed capable of housing more than a thousand troops.
Including Kalmor’s security force, roughly five thousand troops were probably stationed in this region alone at all times.
If one added the garrisons across the eastern region and the border defense forces, the total military strength held by the Siarkan grand ducal territory would be around fifty-eight thousand to sixty thousand troops.
That was a scale comparable to the imperial army directly under the Imperial Family.
Moreover, since most of the Khan people were said to receive cavalry training from childhood, if additional forces were recruited, it would probably be possible to organize an even larger army.
Lowell examined the castle’s internal structure and ran various calculations through his mind.
Then, suddenly sensing a chilling presence, he whipped his head around.
At the wide-open entrance of the reception room stood a man wearing a black velvet tunic and a cloak trimmed with gray fur.
He hurriedly placed one hand over his chest and paid his respects.
“Though my greeting comes late, it is an honor to meet you, Your Grace. I am Lowell Draven, guildmaster of the northern merchant guild. Thank you for inviting me to the castle.”
“Sit.”
The man gave a slight nod and sat at the end of the long table.
Lowell pulled out a chair at his side and sat down, studying the young ruler of the East with cautious eyes.
The man possessed a refined beauty like a marble sculpture.
Delicate features, a perfectly sculpted frame, and eyes of a rare color...
Judging only by his appearance, he looked like someone better suited to being a bard or an actor on a stage.
Had Lowell not witnessed the man’s monstrous strength right before his eyes, he would have taken him for nothing more than a smooth and handsome noble lord.
“Are you done spying?”
At the low, dry voice, Lowell came sharply back to his senses and broke the uncomfortable air with an awkward smile.
“I lost myself for a moment in Your Grace’s handsome appearance. Please forgive my discourtesy.”
The corners of the man’s mouth curled upward.
It was such a smooth smile that it felt eerie.
“You have quite a practiced tongue.”
“Haha, is a merchant’s tongue not his very livelihood? Since I often meet noble persons, my eloquence naturally improved.”
“Indeed, it seems you have been using that three-inch tongue to curry favor here and there.”
The man accepted a goblet from a young boy who seemed to be an attendant and spoke softly.
Lowell forced a smile onto his face, which was threatening to stiffen.
“I am not sure what you mean by that...”
“I already know that you have been selling information about eastern military strongholds to the north. Let us refrain from wasting time with pointless verbal sparring.”
The man spun the cup slowly and spoke in an indifferent tone.
Lowell gulped down dry saliva.
For an instant, the thought of feigning ignorance crossed his mind, but he felt that would only provoke this young ruler’s anger.
He decided to take the direct approach and opened his mouth with a composed face.
“I am a northerner, Your Grace. It is my duty to obey my lord’s orders.”
“So you merely followed the orders of Bjorn Blodar Heimdal. Is that it?”
Lowell bit his lip.
The current Duke Heimdal’s name was Kailus.
However, the man before him seemed to have already grasped the fact that real power in the north had passed to his son.
Feeling cold sweat dampen his back, Lowell urgently continued speaking.
“What I handed over was information far too trivial to be called military secrets. It was the sort of thing anyone with sharp eyes could easily find out. Road conditions, the market’s logistics routes, the size of the army, and so on... Is that not information any trader ought to know as a matter of course? I am aware that Your Grace also collects detailed information about the north through merchants.”
“Yes. Ordinarily, using merchants’ information networks to examine the affairs of one’s neighbors is not such a grave matter...”
The man drew out the end of his sentence.
Lowell watched the cool curve of his elegant mouth with tense eyes.
After several seconds of silence that scorched his insides dry, the man finally set off the powder keg.
“But cooperating with a traitor is another matter, is it not?”
As if struck by lightning, Lowell’s shoulders shrank.
He sprang up from his seat with a flustered face.
“T-Treason, you say! That is an excessive slander. How could you say such a dreadful thing...!”
“They say the circulation of silver coins in the north has increased dramatically since last spring. Truly strange, is it not... The scale of trade has not changed much compared to last year.”
Lowell, who had been acting convincingly indignant, went rigid.
After taking a sip of wine, Grand Duke Siarkan continued slowly.
“The state of the north was so appalling that I investigated it, and in the process, I obtained something rather interesting. Some fearless metalworker had made a remarkably plausible copy of the Imperial Family’s minting plate. Where do you suppose that metalworker belonged?”
Lowell’s legs gave out, and he collapsed into his seat.
While being dragged here, he had expected some degree of reprimand and pressure, but he had never imagined that the man would know every last detail down to the bottom of his dealings.
He looked up at the terrifyingly young Grand Duke with fear-stricken eyes.
The man set down his empty cup with a tap and let out a regretful sigh.
“Infringing upon the Imperial Family’s right to mint currency alone is a grave crime worthy of exterminating three generations. Yet you filled traitors’ pockets with those coins... I doubt you will be buried in a complete form. Allow me to offer my condolences in advance.”
Lowell immediately knelt before the man.
This was no longer the time to weigh what cards the other party held.
There had to be another purpose behind calling him to Raedgo Castle instead of handing him over to the imperial court.
He abandoned all pride and began to beg.
“I-I absolutely had no intention of taking part in treason! I was in a position where I did not know what would happen to my business and my family’s safety if I did not cooperate obediently, so I had no choice but to help only with the silver coin minting. Please, show mercy!”
“Do you ask that knowing that overlooking your crime would also be an act of treason? What benefit would there be for me to take such a risk?”
The man tilted his head toward him.
His expressionless, handsome face looked like an angel of punishment.
Through trembling lips, Lowell barely forced out his next words.
“If you spare me just this once, I swear that no matter what happens later, I will never mention Your Grace’s name. Also, I will become Your Grace’s hands and feet and refuse no dirty task. From now on, I am your servant.”
Lowell instinctively knew that this man had invited him here expecting those very words.
The young ruler silently looked into his face.
The corners of his mouth twisted faintly.
It was a smile like a sharpened blue blade.
“I shall try trusting that three-inch tongue of yours.”
***
She seemed to have dozed off at some point while lying on the bed reading a book.
With her eyelids lowered, Thalia breathed softly, then unconsciously opened her mouth when she felt something cool touch her lips.
Soon after, something like a small grain was pushed into her mouth.
When she lightly bit it, sweet and sour juice spread through her mouth.
After swallowing the slightly softened piece, she rubbed her dry eyelids with the back of her hand, and Varkas’s figure came into her gradually clearing vision.
She slowly furrowed her brow.
He was sitting with his elbows resting on his knees, fiddling with something.
“What is that?”
“It is a pomegranate. The guests brought it as a gift. Open your mouth.”
He carefully took a red seed from inside the pomegranate split in half and brought it to her lips.
Thalia stared blankly at it, then slowly opened her mouth.
He placed the pomegranate seed into her mouth and immediately began digging out another one.
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