WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Oblivious
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Prince of Rage ◈
Chapter 101
──────
To be called by someone dear to you, and to answer that call. It meant calling out, and being answered.
Arne had ridden a long way through winter’s harsh wind to meet someone dear to him.
He seemed more grown-up than before, his features somehow more pronounced.
“You came alone?”
Valerie asked.
“Is that the first thing you say after we haven’t seen each other in so long?”
The usual greetings between friends were just bothersome. A smile was enough. Despite his blunt words, Valerie smiled, and Arne smiled too.
The Hayden Crossroads branch of the Lokir Merchant Company no longer seemed like a mere branch. To those who had called and answered one another, it felt like the center of the world.
Arne might have felt awkward around so many people he had never met, but the moment he saw Yorick, that feeling vanished.
“I heard you talked behind my back?”
“Me?”
“Look at this bastard. Did you say it because you thought you’d never see me again?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
That was what Arne said, but he was smiling. So was Yorick.
Knut looked tired from his long journey and did not seem in the mood for jokes.
“My brother says they only just fought a war, so they probably can’t muster anyone until winter is over. They can’t help right away. They might be able to send volunteers for now. The Count of Winslow hasn’t said anything, but I think he’s worried.”
Knut spoke as he practically collapsed into a chair. Arne continued.
“I don’t have much in the way of troops. Just the city guards. It felt too heartless to simply refuse, so I came myself at least.”
Both responses were more or less what Valerie had expected, so he nodded readily.
“By the way, how did you kill the dragon?”
“Everyone I meet asks that. I should write it across my forehead. I killed it this way and that way.”
“Hey, I’m asking. Can’t you answer me?”
“It swallowed me whole, so I slit open its throat from beneath its jaw. Then it died.”
“...Really?”
“By the way, Valerie, it seems to have become an open secret.”
Knut said this after taking several large gulps of water.
“What has?”
“People are whispering that you’re a prince. Not just people elsewhere. They’re talking about it in taverns and places around here too.”
All the northern nobles and the nobles of Eldeira already knew. Valerie had revealed his status during Gunnar’s trial. He had also told his friends in one way or another, so it would have been stranger if word had not spread.
Still, those who knew Valerie was a prince did not go out of their way to announce it. Ordinary people were only uncertain, but as Knut said, it had become an open secret.
Of course, Valerie had expected this, and he was not especially concerned.
He had hidden his status only because of the House of Winslow. Now that issue had been resolved, there was no great reason to avoid it.
“Does it matter now? I’m planning to fight the current king anyway.”
“...Hey...”
“That’s better. It’s better for the kingdom to split into two major factions than for the whole kingdom to be torn apart fighting.”
It was a realistic alternative. It was the best method he had found, even after regression. Valerie did not dream impossible dreams. He was always realistic.
He had chosen the lesser evil, but in reality, the lesser evil could be the best choice.
“What will happen to Heaven? It won’t matter if you win, I suppose.”
Knut asked about the issue others were reluctant to raise. In a way, it seemed innocent. In another, it might have been the most important question.
“Heaven is not after death. It is within life. Whether you discover it or not is not something a king can do for you. Of course, people won’t understand. Does that mean I should lie?”
A profound heart and broad intellect were not things just anyone could possess.
That was what Valerie had realized after regressing, changing his heart, thinking differently, and meeting great teachers.
Expecting ordinary people to understand it was greed. Valerie himself knew that it was greed.
“I don’t understand what you mean...”
“We just have to win. Win.”
“Even if we lose, I don’t think Hell will be much worse. Before I met Lord Valerie, living was Hell.”
“If I hadn’t met Lord Valerie, I think right now would be Hell for me.”
Arne, Knut, Yorick, and Ivy spoke in that order. Those were their thoughts on Heaven and Hell.
Valerie nodded. He respected each of their thoughts, and he did not see their expectations and determination toward him as a burden.
“Fine. In any case, first we build a fortress here at Hayden Crossroads. I’ve already told Thorvald. Lucas will provide masons and architects, but Lucas will be working to effectively become the Duke of Nearcaster. So for now, don’t help me. Help him. It’s similar to what you did before, only on a larger scale. Knut will be the spymaster. Arne will handle recruitment, training, and the guard. Yorick will be the diplomat. When Brynhildr returns, she’ll probably command the cavalry. We can’t wage a war of conquest without troops for now. We won’t plunder either. So we must begin by defending what we have.”
“What about me?”
Ivy asked. Yorick stroked her hair and shook his head.
“This is no place for children.”
“But Lord Valerie and Lord Knut aren’t adults either. You’re only three years older than me.”
“Shh!”
“Serving Ivar, my older brother, is important work too.”
“Who is this?”
Arne asked.
“She used to milk sheep. I took her along as a firewood runner, and now she thinks she’s all grown up.”
“Hey, Yorick. You can’t ride better than I can.”
“That’s because I’ve been too busy to practice.”
“What a joke.”
The serious conversation was beginning to grow lighter when the door opened. Cold wind rushed inside, and Wilfred stood at the entrance.
“Um, excuse me.”
Everyone turned toward him. He seemed a little frozen, though it did not seem to be only from the cold outside.
“A royal envoy has come...”
“What?”
“They say they want to speak with Lord Valerie... Outside...”
As everyone stood stunned in surprise, Valerie picked up the sword leaning against the wall and rose. Then he went outside.
He saw the figure immediately. Someone sat on horseback, wrapped in a thick fur cloak with the hood pulled low.
The hand gripping the reins was encased in steel. It was a gauntlet made with the dwarves' techniques. Its delicate joints could not have been made with human skill.
The man gave Valerie a quick look over. Pale breath flowed from beneath his hood.
The others came outside as well, but Valerie spoke.
“Stay inside.”
“Why?”
Knut asked.
“If he wants to talk outside, he wants to talk alone.”
“Do we have to?”
“Oh, just...”
Arne pushed Wilfred and the others inside, then shut the door.
The cold air wrapped around Valerie. Yet it merely circled him and could not enter his heart. A strange phenomenon arose from that. The air around Valerie’s body shimmered faintly, as though a heat haze were rising.
“Get off the horse.”
Valerie said.
The king’s envoy dismounted without a word.
He removed his hood. He had short, curly black hair and a black beard covering his lower face. He looked to be around forty. During the War of the Beasts, he must have been in his late teens or twenties.
“I am Halfdan. It is an honor to meet you, Your Highness.”
His greeting was polite but brief, and he did not bow. He served the king.
And if his name was Halfdan, then he seemed to be “the Black” Halfdan. The man who had become the Duke of Nearcaster before the regression. He was now the king’s instructor, training elite troops and raising Einherjar.
“Does the king have a message for me?”
“I came as the king’s envoy, but this is not the king’s message. More precisely, it is the Kingmakers’ decision.”
“What is it?”
“Mediation.”
“...”
“Return the Third Prince to the Duke of Edelia. In exchange, we will permit you to install whomever you wish as the Duke of Nearcaster.”
Valerie immediately understood the Kingmakers’ intentions.
They appeared to be in conflict with the Antler Alliance, but in truth, they seemed to want to preserve a manageable situation.
Valerie’s appearance, however, threatened to destroy that manageable situation. From their perspective.
“Why should I comply?”
“If words don’t work, force will come into play.”
“Then try it.”
“I did not come to fight today, Your Highness. I only came to deliver a message. What I just said is not an ultimatum. There is ample room for compromise and adjustment.”
“...”
Valerie thought quietly. It felt as though something important was missing from his conversation with Halfdan.
“Is the king well?”
“...”
When Valerie mentioned the king, the air seemed to change. Even the cold air seemed to fall silent.
Halfdan was not glaring at him, but he looked steadily at Valerie. As though warning him without words.
“He is well.”
“Halfdan, did the Kingmakers not consider making you the Duke of Nearcaster?”
“...There was briefly some discussion of it.”
“How strange. Why do the Kingmakers decide such things? Is granting titles not the king’s sole authority? Or is the king too unwell to make decisions for himself?”
“That is not something either you or I should dare say.”
Halfdan’s manner changed further. A little killing intent seemed to gather in his eyes.
But Valerie smiled. It was close to a sneer.
“What do you think princes are? They are people whose real lives begin when the king dies. Though my brother and I are somewhat exceptions. Go tell the Kingmakers not to get cocky. Unless it is the king’s actual message, don’t ever come to me again. I might kill you. Do you understand?”
“...I will convey your words.”
“Get lost.”
Halfdan mounted his horse again. Though he had come a long way through the cold winter, he did not even warm himself by a fire or receive a meal before leaving at once.
In truth, he was not someone who would normally come as an envoy. He was a truly important figure. Even so, Valerie’s treatment had been nearly an order to leave.
And even if Halfdan had only done his duty, he had personally destroyed the house in which the Third Prince had grown up. Valerie did not think well of him.
For someone to call you, and for you to answer that call, was something to be grateful and happy for. But Valerie had not called him, and he had not answered.
Just as when he had gone to find the Third Prince in the past, and now.
Valerie went back inside. His friends all asked at once.
“What did he say?”
“It seems the Kingmakers want to mediate.”
“What?”
“They say they’ll give us the Dukedom of Nearcaster if we return the Third Prince to the Alliance.”
“That doesn’t sound bad.”
“Oh, young master.”
At Knut’s positive reaction, Yorick grabbed his clothes and stopped him.
“My older brother is not an object. He is not someone we can return or not return. And if that was what we were going to do, we wouldn’t have started this in the first place.”
“Then what are we supposed to do? Fight the people truly close to the king?”
Arne asked.
“We’ll see. Once Hild returns, I should head south.”
“Where in the south?”
“Valden.”
Valerie said that and went upstairs. He intended to speak with Ivar.
For a while, the friends were silent, as though they had been left behind. Then Knut spoke.
“By the way, if Valerie becomes king, wouldn’t that make us the Kingmakers?”
Knut spoke lightly, but the others felt weight in those light words. Rather than filling them with excitement, it was still something close to frightening.
And perhaps the mediation Halfdan had delivered was not mediation with the Antler Alliance, but mediation with the Kingmakers themselves. In simple terms, it was an order not to go any further.
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
