Immortal's Ascending Path - 47
Episode-47 < Royal Wedding >
"The Count has arrived."
As the servant knocked on the door and spoke, Roberta put down her quill and rose from her seat. She left the room and walked to the backyard of the Meyer County mansion, guided by the servant.
The backyard was dim. The clouds covering the night sky even hid the moon, so it was only after Roberta's eyes adjusted to the darkness that she spotted the three people. Willem, Fritz, and Ulrich.
Count Willem bowed his head in silence. She followed suit with a silent greeting. Although this mansion was his, he had been staying at the royal palace with the Hilderson clan. Realizing the gravity of the situation, he had been in the palace and secretly visited the mansion when summoned.
Roberta shifted her gaze to look at Ulrich. He was sitting in a chair in the middle of the yard, his eyes closed. With his appearance of being twenty years old and without any makeup, he looked neat, but she was reminded of an old man sitting in an armchair.
"Has the Archbishop not arrived yet?"
Ulrich, who had been breathing deeply, opened his mouth.
"I did mention it to him... but it seems he's late."
"Then I suppose we'll have to wait a little longer."
He opened his eyes and looked at Willem.
"Willem, how is Richard doing?"
"He's fine. Isn't he the one Ulrich personally took in? He seems to have suffered quite a bit, but he won't collapse from just this. Rather, the problem is the political situation."
"It seems the situation has reached quite an extreme."
"Yes. There are few left besides us. Even the faction that married into the clan has turned their backs. Except for those who have been with the clan since ancient times, it can be said that everyone has leaned towards the Pantheon side."
The nobles who remained in the royalist faction were only the families who had betrothed with the royal granddaughter and a few vassals. In reality, it meant that all the nobles except for the Hilderson clan were in opposition to the king.
It wasn't just a simple opposition. It was an opposition that would lead to civil war if opinions were not bent. Already, troops were stationed outside the city, numbering in the tens of thousands.
That was why the city was silent even with the festive occasion of the royal wedding before it.
The citizens sensed the civil war. It wasn't like this until the morning. They believed that the foolish king would succumb to the pressure from the nobles. They expected that the country would find stability either by him yielding his will or by abdicating.
That was why they didn't spare their praise and scattered flower petals, but with Willem and the Hilderson clan supporting the king, it became a beginning rather than an end.
"It's only natural. Since it's a relationship tied together by necessity, they'll fall apart when the necessity disappears. However... I get the feeling that the progress is too fast."
"It seems that the race you mentioned is guiding it."
"I suppose so."
Ulrich nodded.
"What will you do now?"
Listening to the Count's words, Roberta stared at Ulrich.
If he were to say 'seize them' in a single word, the civil war would begin. He had said when he left Meyer County, to prepare for the worst. Accordingly, the Hilderson clan had made full preparations.
However, the opposing side was the same. They had only expected that the clan might not help the king, seeing the awkward relationship between Willem and Richard. They too had summoned troops, prepared for civil war.
Just as the clan gathered at the royal palace to be wary of the other side, the nobles were wary of the other side coming in the middle of the night. Many of the nobles spent the night not in the city, but in the outposts outside the city.
"The ceremony is in three days, you said."
"Yes. If we are to make a preemptive strike, we must do it now."
Willem stated in a firm tone.
"Since we are in a position where we have to perform the ceremony, there will be more things to be mindful of as the days go by. Rather than handing over the initiative to the other side, wouldn't it be better to make the first move?"
"Is it you, who has experienced civil war, trying to start it again? Didn't you get tired of seeing the thirty years of fighting?"
"No. I'm saying we should take measures to prevent greater chaos. They will not back down until they depose Richard and send him to the Pantheon. Also, the Pantheon will not forgive Richard."
Ulrich looked up at Willem. Black eyes met red eyes, one calm and the other ablaze.
"Tell me."
"The civil war ended only five years ago. There is no one among the people of this country who has not been hurt. No one wants a civil war. They are only trying to endure it because they believe they have no choice but to wage it."
He shook his head.
"However, what lies before us is an illusion. The civil war is a fabrication created by the Pantheon and the group they call heretics, so if we can make that known, we can avoid unnecessary conflict."
"Is there a way to avoid it? How?"
How?
It was a question that contained many meanings.
Only a very few people had even vaguely realized the inside story of the incident. Also, no one would believe it even if they were told now. Each and every behind-the-scenes story intertwined in the situation was unbelievable.
Roberta and the Hilderson clan know Ulrich and trust him, so they believe his words. But what about the others? People who only see Ulrich as the Lord who has spent hundreds of years in Ditmarsken will surely treat it as nonsense.
How do you persuade such people, how do you persuade a group with no trust or knowledge, that was Willem's question.
"Time never throws anything away."
Ulrich clasped his hands together and leaned back against the chair.
"Willem, if there is a name among the names I say that you know, tell me. There may be a clue there."
#
Marquis Axel of Stegrun raised his upper body.
He was annoyed because he had been forced awake after just going to bed. But he was just as perplexed. He repeated the contents he had just heard from the servant in his mind and asked.
"Count Meyer has come to see me?"
"Yes, he says he wants to see you, Marquis, and is waiting."
"That's out of the blue. Why now of all times? Didn't he say any other reason?"
The servant replied that he had not.
"The guards? How many guards did he bring?"
"None. Instead, there is one companion."
"...No guards? Who is this companion?"
"He did not reveal his name."
The Marquis made a sound of disbelief.
"However, he said to be sure to convey that he wanted to introduce him to you, Marquis."
Following that, the servant added the companion's appearance. The Marquis frowned and stroked his chin. No one came to mind. No, even if someone did come to mind, it wouldn't make sense.
Why would he look for him in the middle of the night without guards? There was no way Count Willem didn't know the current situation. It was like entering a tiger's den unarmed.
"Suspicious."
"Shall I turn him away?"
He raised his hand to stop the servant.
"Did you confirm if they are armed?"
"I have confirmed. They are not armed, and there are no signs of other people hiding nearby. It seems that only the two of them really came."
"I can't understand. What are they aiming for?" But the bait was too attractive to ignore, the Marquis muttered to himself. "Let them in. Reconfirm the armaments and escort them to the drawing room. Just in case, be thoroughly prepared. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
After a while, the Marquis entered the drawing room with his guards.
Count Willem was sitting at the table with a young man who appeared to be his companion. He wore only a short-sleeved cloth outfit without any ornaments, let alone weapons.
As the Marquis sat in the seat of honor, the guards stood on either side. Six guards entered the drawing room, four of whom stood behind the two guests.
"It's a very bad situation to say 'nice to meet you'. Count."
"That's right," Willem nodded in response.
"I did see you during the day, but I didn't expect to see you again like this."
"Didn't expect? Didn't you seek me out for some purpose?"
"No, the one who sought you out is not me."
Count Meyer looked at the young man sitting across from him.
"The one who sought you out is me, Axel."
Marquis Axel frowned. A young man he didn't even know was speaking informally to him. The guard put his hand on the hilt of his sword, replacing a warning. However, the young man continued to speak without paying attention.
"There are many people who need to be met in order to resolve the current situation, but among them, the only people who can be met right now are a few people including you. So I asked Willem."
The Marquis swallowed his scolding at the young man's manner of speaking, who didn't even use honorifics for the Count.
"...Who are you?"
"Someone who knows you to some extent."
"You know me? What do you want to say?"
The young man scanned the Marquis with a calm gaze.
"Going back, it would be about four hundred years. You don't know, but that's the time contained in the surname attached to your name."
Four hundred years? The Marquis mentally retraced the number.
The traces of the family he knew were short. It was long for a newly emerging noble who had settled down after the civil war, but the records were not even half of the time the young man had said.
The previous family history had only been vaguely heard through oral tradition. It was something like, 'We are a distant branch of a certain noble family.' Of course, there was no physical evidence, so the Marquis didn't believe it at all. But the young man claimed to know. He began to unravel the origins that even the head of the family didn't know, the traces that couldn't be confirmed as true in the first place.
"It started with nomads. Their hometown was hit by a famine, so they wandered around to survive. Then, as it happened, there was a big battle in the country, so they joined in to gather soldiers with the people from their hometown, and they survived in the midst of the fierce battle."
The young man added that they were lucky.
"The survivor entered a group where people in similar situations gathered with people from his hometown. And after roaming the world, he came to this Osnover, and when the one leading the mercenary group disbanded the group and left for the Ice Peninsula, he settled down."
"······."
"As I recall, he was leading about twenty people at the time, and not long after, when a commotion broke out, he seized the opportunity and took over the castle. He had ambition, but he also had outstanding talent. So much so that he even obtained a title in his old age."
The young man said that the surname that the man created when he obtained the title was Stegrun, and as a result of his descendants increasing their power, he obtained the title of Marquis.
"And Axel, you were a person who served the old Stegrun Marquis. Although you now occupy his position and name."
At the word 'old,' one of the Marquis's eyebrows twitched.
"Your ancestor was a fellow villager who settled down with him. He received a knighthood when he received the title."
To be exact, when the Marquis's ancestor obtained the title, he made the subordinates who had followed him until then his vassals.
"After that, your clan served the Marquis family for generations. After several generations, when the Yeongji of the Lord became wider, he became a Lord, and although it was not a hereditary position, it continued until your father because he had faithfully followed him."
It was the same during the civil war. Axel and his father served the old Marquis. However, the Lord was defeated and his clan was wiped out. The relationship that began with the famine in his hometown continued through generations, but it was cut off at that moment.
"······."
Most of the nobles in Osnover today were newly emerging nobles. As the royal family and even the nobles below them were cut off due to the long civil war, their vacant positions were occupied by vassals or outsiders.
Marquis Axel was the same. He was a vassal of a certain Marquis and had been succeeding the Lord position for generations, but when his Lord's lineage was cut off due to the civil war, he took over the title and Yeongji. The only difference between him and other newly emerging nobles was that he kept the old Lord's surname as it was.
"······How do you know that?"
"If you watch the process, you can't help but know."
Watched?
"I lived in that era, and I saw them directly."
Marquis Axel suddenly jumped up from his seat.