Chapter 546 - It Will Be Fun

What Aspen's king had just said also meant that he would accept Krang's proposal. The details were for their officials to handle, and there was no telling how their relationship might change later, but for now, it was a good start.

No one had expected this, but Krang had aimed for precisely this outcome from the beginning. What if the Empire, the South, and the holy city-state all sided with Aspen?

'Then why not make Aspen side with me?'

It was far quicker than prying those three factions away one by one. Of course, it might not work. If Aspen's king was the greatest idiot in the world, there was nothing he could do.

'But there's no chance of that.'

Aspen's conduct thus far made that clear. Krang could see the efforts the king had made to pursue his own aims despite pressure from all sides. And the attitude he had just shown revealed his character.

Aspen's king expressed his gratitude, and Encrid gave a small nod before speaking.

"Doesn't he strike you as a swindler who's all talk?"

He glanced toward Krang as he joked. Everyone here on the Naurilian side, even Andrew, knew Encrid enjoyed making jokes. They simply hadn't expected one in this situation.

"Did you not call him both the king of a nation and your dear friend?"

Aspen's king looked briefly taken aback, but soon regained his composure to ask the question.

"I think he may have fooled me too."

"What makes you think so?"

"He talks about what he'll do, but he has no plan, does he? He just says he'll do it. How irresponsible is that?"

Krang, Jaxon, Sinar, and Andrew all stared at Encrid.

"You're one to talk!"

Krang couldn't help cutting in.

And who could blame him? Here was a man who had declared he would become a knight despite being born with meager talent. There had been no need to ask how he intended to do it. He had shown his chosen method through action. He swung his sword without putting it down for a moment, as though there weren't enough hours in a day. Except when eating or sleeping, he lived like a madman. And this man was asking for a plan?

"Still, it will be fun."

Rather than answer Krang, Encrid addressed Aspen's king.

Fun. To Argius, king of Aspen, the word felt terribly remote. Yet hearing it now made his heart pound. It would be fun, the man said. Yes, it would.

He had been born of royal blood and given the name of the chosen one. But had he truly behaved like someone chosen? He had dreamed, but realizing that dream had been a duty. He could find no enjoyment in it. He had merely thought it was what he ought to do.

Yet the ambitions Naurilia's king now spoke of made his heart resonate and the fine hairs on his skin stand on end. It felt as though he had returned to the moment he first saw his first love and fell into love's fever. Talking to this man Encrid had done that to him. Enthusiasm unlike anything he had known surged uncontrollably within him.

"When I return, I suppose I should proudly proclaim that I rejected your offer of vassalage and secured part of Green Pearl. This won't damage your reputation, will it?"

Argius addressed Krang.

Krang had been looking at Encrid in disbelief, but quickly recovered his usual expression and answered with a smile.

"Do I look that easy to undermine? It won't."

The two kings reached out at the same time and clasped hands.

"Should I die, all of this will mean nothing," Aspen's king said.

"Then don't die. Eat plenty of good food and live a long life. If someone's about to run you through, you might try calling for help," Krang replied.

While the kings exchanged what might have been well-wishes or curses, Encrid called to the Frog standing silently nearby. The middle-aged woman and man from Aspen were busy whispering with their heads together. Swept along by the atmosphere and overpowered by Krang's charisma, they had been left at a loss, unable to say any of what they had intended.

"Abnaire, was it?" Encrid asked.

"What about him?"

"Will he die for the defeat?"

Krais had told him something before he came here.

"That is hardly your concern."

The Frog remained respectful. This was a man who deserved respect.

In truth, no one in Aspen with any sense spoke carelessly to the knight who had stopped an army. The Frog in particular remembered how Encrid had simply let him go, and had spoken to the king about him several times in person. He had spread some of the stories about Naurilia's hero through Aspen himself.

Ironically, some Naurilian nobles who had only heard the news from afar still thought the account of him stopping an army was exaggerated. Encrid's reputation thus stood higher in Aspen than in Naurilia. Wasn't it said that facing someone as an enemy made you appreciate their worth all the more? That applied equally to Encrid's view of the man called Abnaire.

"May I ask for something as the victor?"

Encrid looked at Krang as he spoke. Krang nodded. He was speaking with the king's permission, then.

Everyone turned to Encrid again. Some looked as though they wondered what nonsense he would spout this time.

"Speak."

It was Aspen's king who answered.

"I understand this Abnaire was the chief instigator of the war. As our two nations reach a mutual accord, we cannot leave such a lawless man unpunished. Have him conveyed to Border Guard under guard at once. He must answer for his crimes."

Listening, Krang thought Encrid's tone sounded stiff and unfamiliar. Then he realized why: Encrid was reciting words he had memorized.

The middle-aged woman and the temple priest whispering behind Argius frowned. Abnaire had been imprisoned for the defeat and would most likely face death. Nor did they want him saved. He was forever putting his mind to work on the king's behalf. Varnas had prevented them from killing him before, and this time they were determined to be rid of him. Wasn't he always proposing ways for the kingdom to stand on its own?

Encrid's words were not merely stiff. They ran counter to everything discussed moments before, making his intention obvious. In effect, he was saying: You want him alive, don't you? Send him to me, and I'll keep him safe. Not one person there failed to understand.

"What on earth—"

The priest tried to intervene, but Argius raised a hand to silence him.

"So it shall be. The man was an ardent warmonger who forced this war upon us, a most vicious character."

He wasn't. Abnaire was a moderate, not a warmonger. But what did that matter now? This was Krais's magic at work.

["This is only a possibility, but if Aspen doesn't ambush you and is perfectly civil, then judge the situation and demand custody of their strategist. Why? Why ask when you already know? Isn't it obvious he'll die if we leave him there? If His Majesty intends to set aside the Empire, the Holy Nation, and the South to bring Aspen into the fold, we'd be better off bringing that man here. Once Aspen starts arguing over blame and the chaos grows, he's certain to die. Trying to protect him would put Aspen's king in a difficult position, so it's better if we take him."]

They said a sage recognized another sage. Krais was no sage, but he knew very well that the enemy commander was no ordinary man. He had predicted the man's predicament, too, and calculated that if he was wrong, Aspen's king would simply refuse.

Above all, bringing Abnaire over offered two advantages. Even Encrid could see that much. First, depriving Aspen of its finest supreme commander would make it harder to start another war. Second, if Abnaire came to Border Guard and lived well, he could gradually help dilute the ill feeling between the two kingdoms. All they had to do was bring him to Border Guard and give him food, drink, and a place to sleep.

'What a remarkable fellow.'

Encrid could only marvel at how Krais saw several moves ahead without leaving his seat.

Of course, Krais's eyes had literally gone wide upon seeing Encrid stop an army, and he had asked, ["Th-this... can knights even do that?"] To Krais, Encrid was far more remarkable.

"Until next time."

That concluded the meeting. The two kings went back the way they had come. Moonlight still shone upon the earth, and the stars displayed their beauty. It was as if the moon and stars had come out to dance at a ball called the sky. When Encrid briefly looked out the window, he saw a shooting star streak past.

"Sinar Kirheiss, does your duty still remain unchanged?"

In the carriage on the way back, Krang broached the subject Sinar did not want to discuss. Encrid looked blankly between them. Sinar answered with her usual expressionless face.

"I have never forgotten what I must do."

Encrid did not know it, but Sinar had been a great help to Krang even before he became king, and a covenant existed between them. Krang had not asked because he wanted to turn his back on his own word. Having seen at close hand how she lived, he had begun to wonder whether she truly needed to do it.

"I see."

"Yes."

After watching them, Encrid spoke.

"What is it you have to do?"

"Nothing you need to know, my betrothed. A woman needs a secret or two to remain mysterious."

Wasn't she already second only to Esther in Border Guard when it came to mystery? Her beauty was beyond human, exceptional even among Fairies, and she always went about with an expressionless face. Her air of mystery was already renowned throughout the city.

"It's something like a Fairy's duty," Krang answered for her.

That wasn't really an answer, but if she didn't want to talk, there was no need to press. As before, Encrid simply let it pass.

The black carriage continued on to Border Guard, and only then did Andrew relax a little.

"Whew. We made it."

Andrew might be head of the Gardner family and counted among the most influential members of the royalist faction, but rank meant nothing when you served a madman. And there was another madman right here.

"You look stiff. How about a spar?"

It was the small hours, before sunrise. At a time when anyone else would hurry back to rest, he was asking to spar.

"Are you sane?"

At Andrew's reply, Encrid answered in all seriousness.

"If you sleep and rest whenever everyone else does, when will you swing a sword?"

"After I wake up."

Even Andrew was considered a training fanatic in his family, but there were limits. Encrid did not pester an unwilling man. Andrew had looked stiff, so he had merely suggested working up a sweat.

Early the following morning, Krang summoned troops from Zaltenburg, a city south of the capital belonging to the Duke of Fertile Lands, and set off home. Border Guard's escort accompanied him until they could meet Zaltenburg's, relieving Andrew of his burden.

"I'll see you at the palace, then."

Encrid nodded at Krang's farewell. In about a month, once Border Guard had been put in order, he would have to visit the palace. He was to be honored for his achievements in the war.

After Krang left, it was Krais's turn to be busy.

"We can't have people fighting over border disputes, so we'll need to put up something that at least resembles a wall."

He began construction immediately. A wall rose between Border Guard and Aspen. Yet it did not even reach a grown man's waist.

"Does this even count as a wall?"

The commander assigned to Aspen's border guard cast a glance across it. The Naurilian commander stood before him, not quite within arm's reach, but close enough that a well-extended foot might reach him. He shrugged.

"They say it does."

Pretending not to know what everyone knew was like trying to hide the sky with your palm. That was precisely what they were doing. If another nation objected, they would say they had drawn a border and were each farming and living on their own land.

But what would happen once the fields were irrigated and pioneer villages sprang up right beside each other? Young men and women would fall in love despite their families' certain opposition, and neighbors would lend one another a hand in hard times.

Of course, all of that would take time. But the meeting had bought time for both Naurilia and Aspen. Instead of the continent going up in the flames of war, Aspen, which the Empire, the South, and the Holy Nation had schemed to make their puppet, had suddenly taken Naurilia's hand and begun acting friendly.

Naturally, some might look upon the situation unfavorably, but for now, it was difficult to raise an objection.

A few days later, a transport carriage carrying Abnaire crossed the border. It was a prisoner wagon, so he arrived behind bars, but there were soft blankets and food inside. He had not been treated harshly.

Abnaire's circumstances did not change much after he reached Border Guard. Well, they did change a little. Instead of a prison full of filth and stench, he was confined to a proper room. Should he be relieved to have survived rather than forfeited his life in payment for the war's outcome?

'Who was it?'

More than relief, Abnaire felt inward admiration for the moves Naurilia's king had made. He wanted to see the face of whoever had arranged to spirit him away in the midst of it all. The course of events alone showed him what an exceptional schemer that person was.

Two days after arriving in Border Guard, he heard the two taciturn soldiers outside his door greet someone.

"You're here, sir."

"He's inside."

The latch on the door, which locked from the outside, clicked open. The visitor then exchanged a few more words with the guards.

"Why was this locked?"

"Isn't he an enemy general? We were told to confine him."

"Leave it. If he's capable of getting out of here alone, one latch won't stop him."

The voice was youthful. The door opened with the squeal of a poorly oiled hinge. Abnaire merely lifted his head, remaining seated on a sofa so soft that once you sat down, you never wanted to get up. He saw the owner of the voice.

A large-eyed man entered the room that served as his prison. He looked about the age a youngest brother of Abnaire's might have been, had he had one.

"Been keeping well?"

That was his first meeting with the man who had outwitted him time and again.

The man was not alone. A very attractive, dark-skinned woman followed him.

"She's my bodyguard. I was a little worried you might take me hostage if you're a better fighter than I am."

Big-eyes rambled on, but Abnaire still had no idea this was Border Guard's schemer. When he later learned it, his eyes wavered, betraying his feelings.

"You were that strategist?"

"Oh, it was nothing impressive. I just got worried and tried all sorts of things, and that's how it turned out."

Their conversation was brief, but Krais remained consistently friendly. The strategist, who had introduced himself as Krais, said he had simply come to see him. Before leaving, he placed a hand on the door handle, looked back, and asked,

"Are you planning to escape?"

"... I have nowhere to go."

Abnaire knew the abrupt question was a ploy to gauge his state of mind. The man was indeed no easy opponent. They looked at one another and shared a light chuckle. Abnaire felt a little trust, a little goodwill, had formed between them. He truly had nowhere to go. Returning to his homeland meant death. Where else could he go?

Once outside, Krais increased the guard around the room.

"Didn't he say he wouldn't run?" Nurat asked.

"Yes, he did. But you never know, do you?"

Born with a paranoid anxious streak, Krais saw no reason to trust the man when he had soldiers to spare. The following day, Abnaire found his thoughts in turmoil when he saw that his guards had increased. It seemed as though yesterday's conversation had ended with a declaration: You can't be trusted.

But there was no helping it. This was simply who Krais was. How could he immediately trust one of an enemy nation's leaders? However circumstances might have developed, he was still anxious. Keeping Abnaire confined and watched put his mind at ease.

He could even have put shackles on Abnaire's ankles to dispel his anxiety, but even Krais did not go that far. Given what Krang had said, he had to consider the king's dignity. He couldn't treat the man like a genuine prisoner.

Though he had brought Abnaire here to improve relations between the nations, Krais kept him under meticulous surveillance, and Abnaire simply had to endure it. What else could he do? There really was nothing he could do about it.