Bronze Dream (1)
Siorin stepped forward and bowed deeply at the waist.
“The Leonberg delegation greets His Highness the Third Princeps of the Burgu-“
“I’m just going to skip all the quaint greetings,” the third princeps said as he cut Siorin off, despite there being plenty of time to finish the greetings that are decreed by procedure.
“Rather, where is the prince of Leonberg?” As he said this, the third princeps’ eyes had locked onto mine. Meeting that gaze, it felt as if a snake was slithering over and into me.
I did not avert my gaze, nor did I pay the proper obeisance like everyone else. I merely held my tongue and took a step forward, revealing that I was the prince of the kingdom.
The princeps glared at me with serpentine eyes, and I, in turn, kept on meeting that gaze. Not one of us seemed willing to end the staring contest. There was surely not another person born into this world with such horrible traits. Compared to him, even Adelia’s brutish characteristics could be said to be lovely.
I once more confirmed his traits and again admired the brutal reality of them.
Is there really such a hideous guy extant in this world?
If he had been born a commoner, he would long ago have butchered his family and neighbors.
Were he to have been a knight, he would have been a merciless killer, always holding a knife to his master’s back.
His was a temperament that would lead to the ruination of tens of thousands of lives if he was a noble of the realm.
And if he were an emperor, the millennium empire of Burgundy would be completely scorched to the ground, not so much as leaving a cornerstone as proof that it had ever existed.
Any life he lived would be a hideous thing, and such a man was a princeps.
What thing can be more terrible than his continued existence in this world?
For anyone who was hostile to the empire, the third princeps I now faced was like a burning beacon of hope. Sure enough, the same held true for the original Adrian and his value to his kingdom.
The third princeps was like a gift that the universe had prepared for the sake of the Leonberg realm. I looked upon him with infinite favor.
Perhaps he had read such feelings in my eyes, for the face of the princeps, still staring at me, now let slip a somewhat uncomfortable expression.
It seemed that he had mistaken my appraisal of him for open admiration and even envy.
I did not care in the slightest whether he misunderstood the portent of my gaze.
“How long have I waited for a day like today,” the third princeps said as he graced me with a wide grin. In truth, he didn’t have the slightest idea of who he had been truly waiting for.
* * *
I’m certainly not good at dealing with people.
Perhaps because I had spent so many centuries as a sword, I was ignorant of the inner feelings of others, as well as awkward when it came to expressing my own. Even if I stayed silent, no one would say that I was a homely person.
It didn’t match my temperament to talk bullshit words if they didn’t come from my heart.
Nevertheless, I experienced no difficulty in humoring and flattering the third princeps.
It was all thanks to my notoriety.
The rumored me was a royal villain who had abandoned his father, a precariously positioned prince who didn’t know when the throne would be claimed by his brother, with himself imprisoned after the takeover. It was also well known that my trip to the empire was due to the fact that the hatred between the king and me had reached its apex, and so I was exiled from the kingdom.
The third princeps projected his own twisted personality onto me. He was not being recognized by his father, the emperor, so he had made the haphazard blunder that such a situation also applied to me. He acted comradely toward me, as he felt a natural friendship existed between us.
He even encouraged me by giving out advice that was no advice at all.
“In the future, you will consider me your brother,” he eventually said, saying that we could walk the righteous path together.
It seemed beyond funny.
I struggled to hold back bursting laughter as I listened to him.
There was no need for me to act in a way that did not fit my temperament, nor did I have to forcibly impress him by making him aware of my past achievements. Even if I just kept quiet, the third princeps guessed as to my emotions, making presumptions as to my personality, and even kept giving me advice regarding my future.
“Don’t trust your brother,” he said, “because it wouldn’t be ideal for your brother to become the king when I become the emperor.”
On the third day after meeting the third princeps, he was already considering me to be exactly the kind of person that he was. And on the fifth day, he asked whether I would aid him in the case of an emergency, his tone taking on a subtle modulation. He said that the backing of both the kingdom and the Marquis of Montpellier would gift him with great political strength.
It was unknown when and what this ’emergency’ that he referred to would be, but with him, I didn’t even have to guess that it wouldn’t be a normal situation.
I halted his diatribe, asking him what the situation would be and what he would want me to do.
The guy looked around for a while and then replied in that subtle tone of his, saying that when the emperor made the incorrect choice, he would employ any means and method to rectify that error. He needed more allies to do such a thing.
It was all so casual, but ultimately, he was saying that if the emperor handed the throne over to another princeps, he would start a civil war.
The third princeps went on to state that if such a day ever came, the support of the kingdom and Montpellier would be an enormous asset that would strengthen his attempts.
I readily accepted his offer, saying that if it were to happen, I would mobilize as much force as possible in his aid.
“Excellent! I knew my beloved brother would understand my will!” the third princeps exclaimed as he patted my shoulders, greatly pleased. I didn’t know what to do in that situation.
“But just to make sure, I’ll need you to leave that in writing,” the third princeps said as he pulled a parchment from his chest pocket.
“Don’t get me wrong – it’s not that I don’t believe you, brother. This is just a formal procedure. In the distant future, when I am the emperor, this deed will be proof of your support.”
In essence, he was asking me to sign a document of loyalty, similar to the one I had forced the Marquis of Montpellier to sign. The document explicitly stated that the signee agreed to mobilize his forces if the need for it emerged.
I did not hesitate to put an official seal on the parchment, although the seal was not that of the Leonbergers. I had instead dipped the Marquis of Montpellier’s plaque in ink, and so stamped the document. The third princeps saw the Montpellier family seal imprinted on the agreement, and his grin almost reached his ears. He had stated that he needed both the support of the kingdom and the marquis, but in reality, the signature of a high-ranking imperial noble was more useful to him than the signature of a small country’s prince.
Still, the third princeps snapped to his senses and asked me why I had substituted my own seal for that of Montpellier.
“Isn’t this a more reliable seal, more reliable than the promise of a prince who hasn’t even succeeded to the throne? The Montpellier family and I might have two bodies, but we’re in the same boat,” I answered him.
My argument had immediately convinced him, and he was very happy. In return for my promise of aid, he ordered a wizard to tend to the wounds of the Templars and the others. The third princeps didn’t even seem to care that such wounds were the result of my knights cutting through the knights of his country.
Taking it even a step further, he went on to say that he was greatly interested in knightly battles. He went on to give me information on the imperial families that we were yet to visit, as well as telling me all about their knights.
For me, as a foreign prince, his words were a great gift, and I was elated at being able to open it and see what was inside. Even more surprising was the fact that no one in the entourage of the third princeps tried to prevent him from spilling such secrets.
Not even his knights, some presumed to be paladins, or his wise wizards restrained his flapping tongue. They just watched the goat of a third princeps from afar.
Studying that scene, I could see the true nature of things.
There remained none who could give sagely and wise advice to the third princeps. Only the greedy crows that had flocked to him to feed upon the rice cakes of his largess and ignorance remained.
The third princeps stayed with me for a few days more.
If I hadn’t been scheduled to meet with another noble family, he would surely have followed me all the way to the imperial capital, Hwangdo.
“Sorry, but we have to break up here,” the third princeps told me with true regret.
“Let’s meet again in Hwangdo.” He reached out to me, and I grasped his hand with some reluctance.
‘Warak.’
The third prince was unable to marshal his passion, so he suddenly hugged me.
“In the future, brother, scholars will record it, and the people will praise our historical encounter,” he whispered excitedly into my ear, his voice evincing a playful lilt. As if suddenly conscious of the gazes of those around us, he stopped hugging me.
He then mounted his horse, and as he looked at me, attempting to strike a heroic pose, he started to laugh.
The third princeps laughed and laughed, managing to say that it felt good to let go once in a while. He truly seemed to believe that our meeting would be recorded in posterity.
I half-sympathized with that sentiment, for the meeting between him and I will surely be one of historical import. The only difference from how he imagined it was that, in history, this would be remembered as the day when an independent Leonberg became a reality.
As I watched the third princeps’ party move off, Ranger Jordan sneaked to my side and asked, “Are you sorry about it?”
“No way,” came my reply.
“Huh, I thought you would be disappointed when he left. I have never seen two brothers fit so well together in this world.”
“It might appear so on the surface,” I said and then realized that Jordan must be bored if he had the time to wag his mouth so. As the ranger seemed to have some free time, I decided to give him a mission.
“Go and scout ahead, see if there is a spot where we can encamp,” I ordered him.
Jordan seemed suddenly regretful that he had so openly talked with me, but he disappeared right quick as he led his rangers away.
“Why are we being punished if the captain did it?” one of them moaned.
As I listened to receding complaints of the rangers, I smiled.
“Your Highness.”
I turned my head and noticed that Siorin stood there. While he had been on the road in close proximity to the third princeps, he had a pretty hard time of it. His handsome face has become exhausted in just a few days.
I was tired as well and indeed fed up after having to deal with the third princeps.
He was an awful man, very talkative, and never aware of those around him.
I had not lost my temper with him because he felt such a strong connection to me, and I had to make sure that I gave him what he wanted so I could strengthen my own strategy.
Nevertheless, it was exhausting to face such a piece of trash day in and day out. It felt as if the stench of his rotten mind only left me once he himself was gone.
But what could I do truly do? This was just the beginning; I had but hooked the lure and thrown out the line. A fisherman must be patient. Those fish who sought to bite into the savory bait that was the kingdom and Montpellier’s support still swam all through the empire.
“Well, where is our next stop?” I asked Siorin.
“That would be Count Montaigne. According to the princeps’ information, he has no paladins, but the elite and renowned Hawk Knights are under the control of the Montaigne family.”
Upon Siorin’s answer, I thrust my head back and called, “Your next opponents have white plumes!”
The Templar Knights answered me with roars.
“I’ll eat a nice white hawk as if it was a plump white chicken, and I’m going to enjoy it very much,” one Templar piped up.
“Is that right, then? So we’re eating fresh meat tonight, innit?” Jordan, freshly returned from his reconnaissance, made himself heard. He then complained, asking why I had sent him to find a campsite if we were going to overnight in a castle.
His grumblings were roundly ignored.
* * *
After the third princeps left us, we stopped over at Count Montaigne’s and smashed through the White Hawk Knights. We triumphed over two more knightly orders as we passed through two more provinces.
Now, the imperial capital was near.
I called the delegation to a halt and ordered a rest.
While no one had said anything thus far, it would be weird if the Templars and the soldiers weren’t mentally exhausted by our journey through the empire.
While the knights rested, I summoned Niccolo into my carriage.
“Is it going well?” I asked him, and instead of answering, he shoved a parchment before my face.
It was a large map filled with a compact and crisp script.
The delegation’s journey was depicted on the map, along with information of the knightly orders that the kingdom’s knights had dealt with. I was all written in clear lettering, and the recent information the third princeps had shared regarding the imperial knighthood was also recorded.
“If you make calculations based on the average military organization of the empire, that is one hundred knights and one-thousand five-hundred soldiers per demarcated square area, it is no difficulty to determine the approximate number of troops stationed throughout the entire empire.”
As Niccolo stated this, I gave a happy laugh.
My primary intention in coming to the empire had been to measure its strength and comprehend its political atmosphere. The duels I had initiated had been a means to such ends.
From the outset, the delegation’s route had been planned along the lines of strategic military deployment, and our return route has been set up so that we would visit and scout out all those fortresses and families not yet encountered by the delegation.
So, I was basically gathering vital military intel while traveling through the heart of the empire. While the empire has been reigning as an absolute superpower for such a long time, it had become softened by neglect borne from stubborn arrogance.
And my reconnaissance was being aided by a stupid princeps.
I handed the map back to Niccolo and ensured that Gunn would keep a close watch over it. If something were to happen on the journey, Gunn would be able to steal away the map without anyone being the wiser.
After Niccolo left me, I toured our camp for a time.
We were in the heart of the imperial territory, basically in the middle of the enemy camp, yet the soldiers and knights all seemed relatively relaxed. It was surely thanks to the victories we had achieved through our duels.
The troops had the confidence of a victorious army, and they seemed in no way exhausted, nor withered.
I sorely wanted all the knights and legions of the kingdom to be like these troops. They did not hesitate at the mere mention of the empire, and they all wanted to be reborn as true soldiers of the kingdom who could battle with confidence and valor.
I believed that such a day would soon be dawning. As I looked at the soldiers and pondered the distant future, I felt a gaze fall on me.
I turned my head and saw that Gwain was looking at me.
He didn’t avert his gaze, and I noticed that he had something to say.
I motioned for him to follow me. After I had entered my carriage and waited for a while, Gwain made his appearance.
“If you have something to say, then say it,” I told him.
He hesitated for a long time after hearing my words, saying nothing.
Then: “What the hell have you done to my body?”
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