Immortal's Ascending Path-31
Episode-31. The Meyer Clan.
"I will take my leave first."
The music in the banquet hall stopped. All eyes turned to a young man. He was Ulrich, using the alias Armin, and he had been sitting at the head table. As the night deepened, he was the first to rise.
Count Willem Meyer asked him to stay a little longer. Ulrich smiled, placed a hand on the Count's shoulder, and shook his head.
The protagonist of the banquet left. As the young man whom the host had been attending to departed, the musician stopped playing, and the clown hid himself. The butler sensed the end of the feast and removed the firewood placed next to the fireplace.
'I should get up now if I want to leave right away tomorrow.'
Roberta put down her glass and looked to the side. Fritz was nodding off. He must be finding it hard to endure, as the banquet continued late into the night on top of the fatigue from the journey. She called a servant and instructed them to take the boy to his chamber so that he wouldn't hit his head on the tableware.
"Priest, may I have a word with you for a moment?"
The Count called out to her as she was about to leave the banquet hall.
"Yes, of course."
Roberta sat across from Willem, with the table between them. He must have drunk a lot, as the smell of alcohol was strong. His pronunciation wasn't very good either, as if he was slightly drunk.
"How is Alonso doing?"
"He is well… Have you perhaps met him before?"
"I met him often. Back when I was the Head Priest."
Ah, she made a short sound in her throat.
The Meyer family often stayed in Ditmarsken, Fritz had said. Although entry to the Yeongji had been recently restricted, it was natural for them to be acquainted, as travel was unrestricted when Alonso was appointed.
"Indeed, he does resemble him. I envy that."
She tilted her head, watching the Count mutter to himself.
"What are you envious of?"
"I was saying that I am envious that both you, Priest, and Alonso seem to have pleased him. I have not. I have served for generations, but he keeps you, whom he met in an instant, by his side, rather than me."
The Count dismissed the servants remaining in the banquet hall and spoke.
"I once dreamed. I wished to travel the world with him. But when I was young, he did not leave the Yeongji, and now that I am old, he does not allow me to accompany him."
"...Perhaps the Duke feels burdened."
The Count sighed, saying it was a story he had often heard.
He revealed that his older brother Bernhardt, the King Richard of Osnover, and the Duke's other adopted sons had all told him similar stories.
"It can't be helped. I can fix other things, but not this. Just as we cannot bend his will, it seems I too have a will that cannot be bent."
"...I see."
She gave an awkward smile.
"You have a look of incomprehension."
Wasn't it like forcing someone when they didn't like it? Even though that would only make the other person distance themselves, she found it difficult to understand the attitude of stubbornly pushing one's own position.
"That's probably because you, Priest, are not in my situation. And it's also because there are many things you don't know yet. Or perhaps it's because you are a rational person like my brother and son."
Willem put down his glass, took out tobacco from his pocket, and offered it to Roberta. When she refused with a wave of her hand, he put the tobacco in his mouth and lit it with a spark from his fingertip.
"Have you ever seen a fairy?"
"If you mean long-eared elves, I've seen them occasionally."
"Then you must have seen humans who serve them as well."
She nodded. Osnover was a remote area with almost no races other than humans, but in other regions, dwarves and fairies could occasionally be seen.
In particular, the weaker the human empire's control, the greater the proportion of other races increased, and they even had their own countries. They had simply lost their power from long ago, but they were not extinct like the dragons.
Humans born and raised in such places had no aversion to serving other races like dwarves and fairies. Rather, they took it for granted and took pride in it. Roberta had seen such sights several times at the Nua Grand Temple.
"I have seen them too. A fairy came to find him."
"If you mean a fairy… are you talking about a long-eared elf?"
"Yes. Most other fairies have died out."
Willem said that he was twelve years old at the time.
He was a boy who longed to serve his master by his side.
On a day when snow was falling heavily, a group of a thousand humans arrived in Ditmarsken. As the Osnover civil war had just ignited, the boy thought that the flames had reached the Yeongji.
But it was different. The group of humans were a group that had served a fairy for generations, and they had followed because the fairy was heading to Ditmarsken.
"The fairy's name was Yudevora. She was said to have been born during the prosperous Second Empire, the Istrian Dynasty. She was a person who had lived for two millennia."
The boy Willem saw a fairy with his own eyes for the first time in his life. He learned for the first time that fairies could live that long. He also learned for the first time that there was a clan that had served one person for such a long time. Now, the three-hundred-year history of the Meyer family was long enough for the twelve-year-old boy, but the guests boasted that they had served for several times that long. How could he not be in awe?
Willem wondered what kind of fairy Yudevora was.
"She was a truly old fairy."
However, the fairy Yudevora, who got out of the carriage, was not young.
She was old. She was so old that she seemed like she would crumble. She couldn't even get out of the carriage by herself and was carried out in the arms of a servant.
"She had dignity. Even though time had weakened her body, her innate character seemed unyielding. That's why so many people followed her."
As the harsh cold of Ditmarsken ate away at the lifespan allowed to the fairy, she stood before a human. He was Ulrich, but she called him Selim.
Standing in the cold snow, Yudevora kissed the unchanging human's cheek.
"Selim, you haven't changed. I have grown so old, and my mother became the spirit of the forest you planted long ago, but you haven't changed at all from then."
Everyone present realized why she had come to the northern land. Everyone who thought there was a special reason was wrong. She simply wanted to see him before her life ended.
The reason why Yudevora set foot in the north, burning the last flame of her life, was simply to see one human.
"The Meyers have served for three hundred years, and Yudevora's humans have served for a thousand years. But Yudevora had served since before her mother, one human who had not changed at all…."
That was Ulrich.
Other names were Laurent and Oscar, and now Selim was added.
"This is something sent by the descendants of that fairy, Yudevora."
The Count threw the finished tobacco on the floor and tilted his glass.
"They send him tobacco leaves every year as if offering tribute. In return, he only sends them a letter, but they still cherish it."
He took out a new tobacco and offered it to her. This time, she accepted it. She didn't smoke it, but she held it in her hand and examined it for a moment.
- It's from the forest fairies.
Suddenly, her memory recalled the Ice Peninsula. At the moment when she met the giant Uar to go to Ruobheidra's nest, Ulrich gave him tobacco leaves in exchange for being sent to the nest.
"By the way. Do you think Yudevora is the end?"
The end? She gave him a look asking for the meaning.
"I'm asking if you think Meyer and Yudevora are the only two connections he has."
A human lived for such a long time that fairies served him for generations. If he had descendants, how many would there be? Even if he didn't have descendants, if he had virtue, how many lives would he have taken in?
The Count emptied the last of his alcohol.
"Our three hundred years are nothing. The thousand years of Yudevora's humans are nothing either. Even Yudevora's descendants are the same. Meyer and Yudevora are trivial connections to him, just a fleeting moment."
Whether it was because of the alcohol or excitement, the Count's face turned red, and his voice grew louder.
"He is only one person, but he has descendants all over the world. Even if blood is not connected, they have been taken in, and they still remember each of their names. So if… if he reveals himself… if he says he will embrace the world as his own, who would dare refuse it?"
After finishing his words, he lowered his head powerlessly with a sound like air escaping. Roberta listened quietly to the story and asked with concern.
"Count?"
"...You're right. I shouldn't have forced what he didn't want."
However, he muttered as if he hadn't heard her call.
The heat he had been feeling until just now vanished in an instant. His shoulders trembled. At first, it seemed like he was laughing, but soon it turned into sobbing.
"I was the fool. That's why he must have been disappointed. That's why he's leaving."
#
Ulrich was walking alone on the inner ramparts.
The sky was clear, so the moonlight brightly illuminated the ground, but the city of Witten shone on its own to the point that it didn't need moonlight. Orange lights rose thickly throughout the city, making even the alleys bright.
Roberta, who had left the banquet hall after entrusting Count Willem to a servant, discovered Ulrich's back. She quickly followed and stood beside him.
"Is the story over?"
"Yes… well, I just listened."
In response to her vague answer, Ulrich said while looking at the night view.
"Willem, what did that child say?"
Roberta took out the tobacco she had received from Willem.
"I heard you used to smoke these a long time ago."
"I smoked them until I met Hilde. She hated it, so I quit."
Ulrich received the tobacco and examined it.
"It's something sent by the fairies. They are children who have settled far to the east. I took them in when the Istrian Dynasty was hunting other races."
"You took them in… like the Meyer family?"
"Similar. Just like the founder of Meyer was a slave, they were also slaves. I bought them and moved them. Do you know a place called Kuiania?"
She replied that she knew.
"Are you talking about the jungle in the Far East?"
"It was a desert back then."
A desert?
"It wasn't a very good place for fairies to live, but effort and time solved it. Because time can turn a forest into a desert, and a desert into a forest."
"..."
"It's tobacco made from leaves grown in that Kuiania. It only grows in the fairy forest, and even then, it doesn't grow well, so it's very precious. If someone recognizes it, they can sell it for quite a bit."
He placed the tobacco back in Roberta's hand. She swallowed hard while looking down at the tobacco.
Ulrich, it was not surprising that a strange lord had a connection with fairies. She had seen dragons and giants, so why not fairies? It was possible. But where did he say he rescued the fairies and settled them?
Kuiania, he said he had settled them in the world's largest jungle. And he said it was originally a desert. He said the fairies cultivated the desert and turned it into a jungle.
"...Amazing."
"Just keep in mind that there is such a history."
He added not to think too deeply about it.
Was that possible?
She scratched the back of her head while holding back a sigh.
"Is that all you heard from Willem?"
"No. There's more, but did you know?"
"I can tell by your expression. You're very transparent."
He said that he had seen her for over a year.
"I still don't know you, Lord…"
"It would be arrogant if you already claimed to know me. You and I have different times. Keep asking in the future. That's how we can narrow the gap."
"Aren't you uncomfortable?"
"No, I like your questions."
He liked them? Roberta blinked.
"People who meet me are usually one of two things. They either laugh and ignore me, calling me a liar, or they trust me so much that they don't question me. There are few people like you. Very rare."
He said that when he talked to someone who was biased to one side, he sometimes felt like he was talking to a wall.
"Conversation requires a process of getting to know each other. Don't you think?"
"That's, that's right."
"So always ask. I like that kind of thing. I can't answer everything, but I promise I won't lie."
Ulrich smiled lightly and patted Roberta on the shoulder. Roberta also smiled awkwardly and turned her gaze away. The words stopped, and the silence continued for a long time.
"...Count Willem was talking to himself."
After a long time, she opened her mouth.
"He said he was deceived. That's why he was disappointed."
"He still had feelings for me."
Ulrich said while looking at the night view.
"Pantheon, no, Cormilius seduced that child. So that the throne would pass to me, so that I could not refuse the throne. And he fell for the seduction."