Chapter 8 :

Episode 8 - The Hunting Tournament(3)

Before the hunting tournament began, the servants called in professional hunters and divided the forest by zones.

It was to make sure nothing unfortunate happened at a time when only people said to be precious in the empire had gathered.

Of course, even among nobles, there were very rare cases of people who handled weak Manis and had sturdy bodies.

But conversely, there were surely people who had been forced to participate in the hunting tournament, even though it suited them better to devote their efforts to academics or some other specialty rather than catching animals.

If it did not end with someone merely getting a little hurt, and someone died instead, things would become rather complicated.

Since the responsibility would fall squarely on the employees who had prepared the hunting tournament, the division of zones was carried out precisely.

The results created that way were these cloths I was looking at now, tied firmly to tree branches and fluttering.

In places where small animals mainly appeared, white cloths were hung from trees. Medium-sized animals were marked with blue cloth, and large animals with red cloth.

Usually, the small-animal zone was not far from the entrance, the medium-sized zone was in the middle, and the large-animal zone was located deepest inside.

I gripped the reins tightly to find the area where the white cloth changed to blue.

Since this was the largest forest among those owned by the imperial household, I had to hurry a little if I wanted to meet Duke Feedus, whom I was desperately searching for.

Of course, I was not searching blindly.

If my calculations were correct, Duke Feedus would move from the medium-sized-animal zone to the small-animal zone today.

Around this time, he would catch a fox mixed with golden fur and offer it to the emperor.

The problem was that this was only brief information that appeared for a moment in a scene mentioning the past, so it did not describe exactly where and when he caught the fox.

This was one of the reasons why I had been insanely busy for the past few days.

Because I had to find the golden fox faster than Duke Feedus.

For the past week, whenever I had time, I transformed into a crow and searched all over this huge forest.

I thought finding a golden fox in a forest thick with greenery would be easy, but that was my huge mistake.

Perhaps there was a reason it had survived in the forest until adulthood; unless it was night, the creature rarely showed itself, and it kept moving its burrow.

By the time I had barely found its habitat, I had already accumulated the experience of being smacked on the nape by a red fox’s front paw and having my head narrowly brushed by an eagle’s wing.

And I had finally found it.

The main route of this clever golden fox.

And I had to put several other details together.

The fact that Duke Feedus, who was usually skilled enough to enjoy hunting in the medium-sized or large-animal zones, had discovered a small animal like a fox probably meant that he found the fox near the boundary between the medium-sized zone and the small-animal zone.

Since there was a description shortly afterward that he had vaguely washed his hands by the water, there had to be a lake or a large puddle nearby.

Since he must have discovered the fox while hunting in the medium-sized zone, I, who had ridden straight here as soon as the hunting tournament began, probably was not late.

The place where all this information came together was right here.

In front of a lake, where a small cluster of trees that looked somewhat like boxwood reached up to my knees.

I loosened my grip on the reins a little and slowly wandered around the area.

It seemed I was not late.

The area around the lake was quiet and orderly, as though no hunting had taken place yet.

To notice the coming change immediately, I needed to listen to the sounds of grass insects in the forest and the sound of wind stirring the trees.

All preparations were perfect.

Now, all I had to do was wait here, stop the duke when he appeared, and handle my business with him.

...Prrrrr!

If only an unexpected ambush had not appeared.

The black horse, which had been walking rather slowly, suddenly blew air through its nose and stopped.

Then it raised its neck and began turning its head this way and that.

I held the reins and patted its neck, but the creature simply would not calm down.

At the betrayal of this creature, which had not been part of my calculations, I was dumbfounded.

We may not have been close until just now, but did we not have fairly good coordination?

Why are you suddenly doing this?

"Calm down. Are you sick?"

The creature nodded its head.

No, it seemed that way.

Or perhaps I had simply interpreted its frenzied movements in a way convenient to me.

Since the nodding motion was too crude by human standards, it was hard to judge.

But based on my experience so far, it was worth checking.

Because the animals of this world seemed capable of expressing their intentions to some extent.

First, I decided to take down the bag that had been tied to the stirrup.

And the moment I reached for the bag, the creature calmed down as if it had been lying all along.

At that absurd change, I narrowed my eyes and glared at this fickle black horse.

No way....

"Don’t tell me you did that because you didn’t want to carry this?"

And as if it had been waiting, the creature slightly turned its head back and met my eyes.

...I was certain.

This creature understood my words perfectly.

The sight of the horse reminded me of the crow from the first day of my possession, and I felt a slight chill.

What came next was a faint sense of unfairness.

"Aren’t horses originally supposed to pull wagons and things like that? You’re only carrying one bag and one person."

No matter what I said, the creature only stared at me calmly.

And when it saw no sign that I would take off any more luggage, it lifted its hind legs this time and made me fall backward onto the saddle.

"Ah— fine. I’ll get down, so stop it."

Because of that violent action, I had no choice but to shoulder the bag and get off the horse.

As soon as I dismounted, the creature seemed satisfied and began clip-clopping toward the lake to drink water.

Whether I let out a hollow laugh in disbelief at that brazen sight or not, the creature drank water elegantly and shook its head with a snort.

Far from being vulgar, as someone had said, it was undoubtedly at least more dignified than I was.

Thinking it had rested enough by now, I approached with the bag in hand, but the creature stared straight at me and even began slowly backing away.

"......Hah!"

Faced with this absurd ambush, I tried a few more times to mount the horse, but the creature would not give in.

I could not stay in a standoff with a horse forever.

If I missed the duke like this, I would have to choose the next-best option, and I did not particularly like that.

"You just wait. I’ll tell the stable keeper to cut your food in half."

I glared at the creature, then listened again to the sounds coming from the forest so I could respond immediately if I heard anything like hoofbeats from somewhere.

If it really came down to it, I would just have to throw a stone or something.

* * *

Duke Feedus was walking through the grass where blue flags could be seen here and there.

"It seems luck is simply not with you today."

Tollin, the aide following behind him, teased him, but he did not reply.

It was not that luck was not with him. The problem was his own mind.

Normally, with almost ghostlike skill, he would have caught a wolf or deer or two by now, but today his thoughts were so complicated that he simply could not focus on hunting.

The traces of animals did not enter his eyes at all.

The duke let out what must have been his umpteenth sigh today and looked up at the sky.

The sky where the rainbow had disappeared was clear. As though there was nothing unbeautiful beneath that sky.

Agony Feedus.

His family had long been one of the houses that held the core of power among the nobles, to the point that there was no one in the country who had not heard the syllables of the name Feedus.

A life of abundance, honor, and the respect that naturally followed.

It was a life in which everything was guaranteed, but lately he could not bear the unpleasant anxiety that had been creeping into his mind.

Feedus was a knightly family that had served the imperial family for generations, becoming both sword and shield of the imperial household.

The imperial family was god itself, incarnations of god, beings who had descended from the heavens in ancient times to save a chaotic world.

It was said that the first emperor, Sierra Abiran, used a mysterious power to subjugate those who had split into dozens of factions and never stopped waging war against one another.

The records of the first emperor, who named the unified empire Abiran, had become almost mythical now that more than a thousand years had passed, but the duke had been taught that the remaining imperial family was living proof of it.

Even without being taught, if one saw their wondrous golden hair even once, respect and reverence would well up naturally.

Duke Feedus first met those people he revered so deeply in the imperial palace, where he had entered with his father thirty or so years ago.

Now past sixty, amid his blurred memories, he clearly preserved only the shock of that day, which had rendered meaningless all the reverence for the imperial family he had learned from books and tutors.

No other description was needed.

They were god itself.

It was then that he first felt as though he dared not even look upon something one stage higher than himself.

And there had never been another time when he had been as proud of his family as he had then.

As one of the primordial families that had assisted the first emperor, his family had remained their sword until now, and he found that admirable, even lovable.

When he was confirmed to be a possessor of Manis, which was said to appear rarely even among high nobles, it truly felt as though he were flying through the sky.

He swore loyalty to the current emperor, and even before inheriting his family, he took up the sword for them without hesitation.

Thus, more than thirty years had passed as he ran forward, fueled by reverence and loyalty.

A few years ago, he stepped down from the position of commander of the imperial knights.

One reason was that his body was no longer quite what it used to be, but he also thought it was necessary to train a successor who would serve the imperial family after him.

Just as his father had done, he taught his still-young late-born son the reason they had to be loyal to the imperial family, along with their nobility and wonder.

He explained what his family’s role was and why it was so important, and watching his son follow those teachings well, he thought this was precisely the happiness of old age.

There was nothing more satisfying than imagining that, in a few years, this child, grown into adulthood, would succeed him and assist the imperial family.

But his flawless world had begun to crack.

The beginning of this collapse was merely a trivial whim, like a stream that began from a small crack and grew uncontrollably until it brought down a dam.

It was the day he took his young son around the capital.

Recently, he had taken an interest in showing his son in advance the trading company owned by the Feedus family and their other businesses.

It was because his young son absorbed everything he taught like a sponge.

Just seeing the child accept his words gently and wisely seemed to bring peace to his heart.

That day was the day a small accident occurred on the road the carriage was taking, and the coachman had to drive the horses along a slightly roundabout route rather than the usual road.

Until then, he had been perfectly at peace.

Until, through the window, his eyes caught sight of the corpse of a young child who had been beaten to death and left rolling on the roadside.

—Stop the carriage.

Without realizing it, the duke stopped the carriage and approached it.

No one paid attention to the child. More precisely, to what had once been a child.

When he grabbed a nearby person and asked, the man bowed his head repeatedly and answered.

He said the child had been caught trying to steal tribute goods that were to be offered from the temple to the imperial palace, and had ended up like that.

In the empire, the temple served the first emperor and the imperial family.

Touching what belonged to the imperial family was a grave crime, one that had to be repaid with one’s life.

Duke Feedus also knew that law well.

He had even enforced punishment on criminals for that crime several times.

Though never on such a young child.

The corpse of the criminal could not be enshrined carelessly by anyone either.

From the moment a criminal insulted god, they became an unforgivable existence.

People believed that unless the corpse was burned, even the person who touched it would be defiled.

The duke, too, hesitated, unable to bring himself to lift the child.

—Father, what is the matter?

Standing hesitantly before it, he felt his mind go blank as if he had been struck by lightning.

It seemed his son, worried about his father suddenly stopping by the roadside, had followed him out.

That clear, plump face overlapped with the child’s face, which had been full of scabs and wounds.

Overcome by a feeling he could not describe, the duke hurriedly lifted his son and climbed back into the carriage.

His heart was pounding faster than ever before.