CH 4

“Neither Prince Ellion nor Carlton wants to kill us right now. All they want is our surrender. It’s enough for the duke to show his submission to the prince,” Luisen said.

“If what the prince desires is our submission, we should not be weak-hearted and back down any further!” the general argued. “Our honor as the ruler of the south is at stake!”

“Does honor feed you?!”

The general became angry. “Is that what the Duke of Anies should say?! Is the master of these golden fields scared away by the dog of an illegitimate prince?”

“That’s not what I meant. I’m…afraid, yes. But I made this decision for all of us.”

If the prince were to give up on the duchy, Carlton would brutally crush the territory. If that were to happen, the result would be no better than the desolate future Luisen had experienced before.

“…When you insisted on supporting the second prince, you said the same thing,” the general contended. “You said that it was a decision made for the good of all of us, but what has happened now? You’ve only lost soldiers and wealth; you were branded a traitor. This is why I begged for you to not be involved in central politics!”

Luisen shut his mouth. To be honest, he had nothing to say to that–true, he was complacent and incompetent. He had never seriously considered the consequences of a civil war, nor the succession dispute.

He lived as a flowing river. Because he was a relative to the second prince, he stuck close to him. There were no other serious considerations.

“My lord, are you not just scared? Are you going to beg for your life when you surrender? Can’t you please feel responsible as a lord, especially when the situation has already become so severe?” one of the advisors pleaded.

“That’s enough. We’ll just do what we’ve been doing so far. My lord should go back and just finish his wine bottle. Or take a shower. You smell strongly of alcohol.”

The words of the treasurer, which did not contain any expectations, penetrated Luisen’s heart more than the general’s gruff reprimand. The advisors ignored Luisen and resumed the discussion they were sharing before he had appeared.

Luisen could not respond to any of their rebukes. His intentions were good–he wanted to save everyone in the conference room–but it was difficult to convey his true feelings.

Only the kind butler approached Luisen.

“Young master, you must be alarmed. Please, feel free to rest in your room. The elders of the castle will take care of matters.”

Still a young master. Even though it had been more than twenty years since Luisen had become the lord, to the butler he was still “young master.” Not a lord to trust and follow.

This wasn’t an issue unique to the butler either. Not one person in this conference room was confident in him as a lord.

A feeling of frustration and helplessness simultaneously brewed within Luisen. Unlike his previously vigorous run to the conference room, he returned to his chamber with plodding steps.

***

“They mean well, but….”

Luisen cringed. It was impossible to even curse at his advisors, considering he had never worked properly as a lord before.

His parents died when he was six years old, and he became a duke. The general was the acting-lord and spent a great deal of time trying to mold him into a proper noble. The general proved to be strict, and Luisen was inevitably dragged along against his will. He often ran away from his tutor and hid in the attic. Thus, he had little knowledge of martial arts, history, and etiquette.

As he grew older and became an adult, he escaped from his tutor’s grasp and left all of the work and his estate to his advisors. He spent money from the territory like water and mingled with unsavory friends.

After being in so many scandals, his reputation was at its worst. He knew how to spend money, but he had little knowledge or appreciation for the money’s origins. He wasn’t interested in the land nor his family name.

He used to think ‘everybody is already doing well, why do I need to care?’ and he was ignorant of any of his territory’s issues, for he liked the flashy and colorful capital more so than the manure smell of the rural villages of the duchy. His advisors were the only ones keeping the territory running while Luisen was playing around.

He was then stuck on the losing side in the clumsy struggle for the throne, having uprooted the pillars of his territory’s economy to support the second prince. He was left without proper personal connections because of his former misconducts and was even set up as a foil to the first prince due to their bad relations. His biological bloodline was excellent, but he had no idea how to utilize it.

In other words, many thought the territory would be better off without Luisen!

‘Even if it were me, I would probably want to chase off the person who insisted on surrendering the night of the battle.’

However, the people were too nice, he thought, and they didn’t leave him to fend for himself. Luisen recalled how, in the past timeline, people would spit on, beat, and insult him…and then he felt grateful for his strict advisors.

‘Why did I get angry and ignore them in the past? They were such good people.’

Ever since he was born, he was used to being supported. Luisen resolved to take as much responsibility as the support he was given.

‘The saint was right. Nothing in life is ever free; people must work for their meals.’

With that in mind, Luisen was now determined to at least start earning his own keep. As payment for his meals, he would step up in this battle, save the people, and protect the future of the land!

To do that he needed to successfully surrender… Since the vassals wouldn’t listen to him, sending a formal envoy was impossible… How many more days could this situation last?

According to Luisen’s memory, tonight would pass safely, but there was no knowing what tomorrow would bring. The vassals all believed in their safety, but Luisen knew that Carlton wasn’t yet using his full power.

‘Carlton…even though he may be a madman, his skills cannot be denied.’

Even though Carlton openly persecuted nobles and made many enemies, his ghost-like 1 mercenary skills and strength enabled him to gain the confidence of Prince Ellion.

The first time Luisen had seen him was during the first battle on the day the castle was besieged. He had seen him from a far-off distance. Wearing black armor, Carlton was like a death knight from old legends.

With a single swing of his spear, Carlton razed swathes of soldiers, knocking out heavily armed knights and clearing his path. Countless articles and tall tales regarding the man flew about the capital, but they were still not enough to prepare Luisen to see him in person. He was the scariest human being Luisen had ever met.

It was enough to scare those that weren’t even standing on the battlefield.

‘Maybe I should directly….’

But the battle was well underway, and it would be hard to penetrate through.

He was sure that even before meeting Carlton to surrender, he would get caught up in the battle and die. Luisen frantically paced back and forth as he continued to think. Ruger, who had been watching him with an anxious face, slyly brought up the plan to escape once more.

“Hearing what others have said, it seems like the castle will not last much longer. If the enemy truly intended to fully invade, we would have fallen immediately. It seems as if the general is lying. We have no more chances; reinforcements won’t come.”

“If you want to escape, do it by yourself,” Luisen responded.

“I will go wherever my duke goes! Even if I die, I’ll stay by your side. Please, don’t underestimate my loyalty.”

“You want to stay with me?”

""

“B-but…who knows what kind of vivid humiliation my duke will suffer from that butcher? He’s a monster, you know!”

“……”

“Do you remember?” Ruger explained, “I told you everything. For goodness’ sakes, he tore the limbs off a viscount’s son with ropes and horses! To imagine you meeting such a disgraceful and horrible death…”

Ruger had a way with words. Even if the same words were spoken, Ruger’s eloquence would make it seem more realistic–the words would remain in your mind. 2 While explaining Carlton’s notoriety, Ruger gestured wildly with both hands and feet. A chill traveled up Luisen’s spine.

“Stop. I’m already disturbed, but you’ll make it worse.” Terrified, Luisen wrapped his arms around himself.

Carlton had directly chased him when Luisen originally escaped under the cover of darkness. That night remained a nightmare that had long tormented his dreams. Though Carlton had been distant enough that Luisen couldn’t properly see him, he threw his spear with scary accuracy. It had missed Luisen by a hair’s breadth. The attack instead hit a tree, which immediately split in half.

Even now, recalling that moment caused cold sweat to form on Luisen’s brow.

It had been the first time in his life that he felt as if death was just around the corner. As most of his life was spent in peace and safety, he could not easily shake off that experience.

For a long time afterwards, Luisen was caught in delusions concerning his ever encroaching death by Carlton’s hands. A grim reaper–a knight of death–made in Carlton’s image persistently followed him. If the saint hadn’t saved him, he would not have been able to brush aside that delusion.

“So, let us leave, my duke. You’re scared too, right? There’s nothing left for us to do here… And, honestly, wouldn’t the people prefer that my lord disappeared?”

“Nnn….” Luisen winced.

“Look at this. It’s a map from the groundskeeper. If we follow this map, we can safely avoid the monster and quickly cross the forest to Dubless Pass.”

Ruger opened a familiar map to persuade Luisen. In the original timeline, they used this map to escape to the neighboring Dubless County. It wasn’t a particularly pleasant memory.

Ruger had said that Count Dubless would protect him and give him the best reception, but instead Luisen was treated completely insignificantly. 3 The count had held Luisen in the parlor, asked him a few questions, then kicked him out. That was when Luisen returned to the Anies Duchy, heartbroken.

In any case, the map was reliable. No beasts beset him while he was traveling through the woods. A single wrong path may have led him near Carlton’s garrison of soldiers.

…Huh?

“Give me that map.”

“Here!” Ruger, thinking Luisen had changed his mind, happily handed over the map.

TN: Here’s chapter 4! I’m gonna release chapter 5 sometime later today~