Volume 6 14

Volume 6 Chapter 14

With a pale moon showing little light, a lone carriage traveled over stone pavement in the royal capital.

Two men were riding inside it.

Indeed he was a man, but looking at how beautiful he was, it would be no wonder if someone mistook him as a woman.

While the other man had shaved head without a single hair.

His age was around 40s. His height was somewhat little over 180 centimeters.

One can say his body looked solid.

People might call him a person that’s as big as a bear.

His upper arms were very thick.

The feature that drew the most attention however, was the eyepatch made of black leather that covered his right eye.

A scar ran from his eyelid down to his cheek.

Coupled with smells of violence that oozed from his whole body, although he was wearing silk clothes with stylish design, it was obvious that he was someone who people should not come close to.

Such a man sighed unhappily.

“Fumu… To think we have to come to an upstart Baron’s invitation… The world seems to be coming to an end.”

Saying so, the man snorted.

The man was from a knight household who served the first King who created the Kingdom of Rozeria. Inreturn, his household was being given territory located at the east of the kingdom, given the task to defend the country from the Mist Kingdom.

His house saw a decline in authority after the downfall of Prime Minister Earl Ernest. Even with that, his household still remained as one of the most prestigious households within the kingdom.

Normally, a baron of unknown origin won’t be able to invite him so suddenly.

By the standard of aristocrats of this world, an invitation was sent to someone lower rank than the sender.

Of course, there was also a case where lower ranked aristocrats invited the higher ranked one, but that was because they had intimate relationships such as blood or marriage relationship.

It was almost impossible for the man to accept an invitation from Baron Mikoshiba which he hardly even knew.

To put it bluntly, it would not be weird if they just ignored the invitation made by Baron Mikoshiba Ryouma.

Dissatisfaction was burning like a lava inside the man’s heart.

However, the young man in front of him had a smile on his face and showed a different attitude.

“If you’re going to complain that much, then it would’ve been better to decline the invitation. Our McMaster family was a family of a Viscount. It would be fine to decline an invitation coming from a Baron, no?”

Saying those words, the young man laughed and smiled.

He had a beautiful voice with a siren like sound that would deceive people if one heard it.

The man glared at the young man with a beautiful face.

“You said that, but do you really understand what you said?”

“Well, certainly not much…”

In response to the question from the man, the young man did not look like he regretted what he had said.

In fact, the man’s words were correct.

In terms of common sense in the aristocrats’ society, the action made by Baron Mikoshiba might be seen as illogical. At the same time it showed that Baron Mikoshiba had the power to do just that.

Even if his title was the lowest among the aristocrats, the achievement Baron Mikoshiba possessed was unparalleled.

It was Baron Mikoshiba who helped Lupis to take the throne.

During a defensive battle against Ortomea invasion, he and Elena Steiner were sent as reinforcement to the Zalda Kingdom and he played an important role that caused the two nations to come to a ceasefire.

Not to mention, Baron Mikoshiba Ryouma had defeated Earl Salzberg who had dominated the northern part of the Rozeria Kingdom for all these years.

Regardless of his rank, he was one of the big powers in the Kingdom.

As of now, aristocrats who were trying to fight against Baron Mikoshiba Ryouma head-on were probably those with more influence or those stupid nobles who wanted to die.

Besides, the letter of invitation also had a joint signature from Elena Steiner, Earl Bergston, and Earl Zeref.

It goes without saying, they were people with influence in the Kingdom since Lupis reigned as a Queen.

In consideration to keeping face, it would be bad to refuse an invitation coming from them.

Even if he dislikes the other side since he was just an upstart.

(Thinking about that, I guess we need to think a bit further…”

The young man sighed looking at his father’s attitude

Why didn’t they refuse the invitation?

Even the father sitting in front of him should understand.

With that being the case, it was foolish to look dissatisfied now.

Nothing good will come if they showed dissatisfaction toward the other party.

(Well I didn’t say that you should accept it and not be feeling dissatisfied… I just hope you won’t show your dissatisfaction at the table…)

One might not say it with words when feeling dissatisfied, but for humans, when they feel dissatisfied, they often time show it from their attitude to their aura.

Furthermore, nobody knows when or where people would see or hear something.

It might be one in a million chance but it might turn fatal if people heard you speak carelessly.

(Well, I guess having him willing to meet face-to-face is already good enough I guess…)

He was a troublesome man.

However, the young man had no intention of abandoning his father.

In the first place, despite being a nobleman, he was more of a warrior.

Until he inherits the position, he was only a knight belonging to the Royal knight orders, which make his personality straightforward.

If a monster attacked their territory, he would definitely go to the front line and slay the monster.

Setting aside whether it was good or not to send a successor to the front line, for him, only those who are prepared to shed blood for the people who will be highly appreciated.

Regarding his domestic skills, there was nothing remarkable about him, but thanks to his straightforward attitude he manages to gain a certain level of trust from the people.

Among the Rozeria aristocracy, his father was someone who could do much more.

However, the young man this time wanted his father to use his skill to hide his heart.

(Something is going to happen during this dinner… The problem is what?)

The question that was occupying the young man’s mind these past few days had appeared once again.

The reason why his household had come immediately to the royal capital was due to Baron Mikoshiba being summoned by the House of Lords.

The reason for his summon was as a witness, but truthfully it was a trial that would be held at the House of Lords.

The crime was that he had caused war in the kingdom and robbed other’s territory.

Normally dispute of territory between nobles won’t turn into something this big.

However, not only has this war caused Earl Salzberg to die, it also caused more than half of the families of the northern nobles to end with literal discontinuities. It is because of that the image the nobles had toward Baron Mikoshiba Ryouma was the worst.

There were none among the members of the House of Lords who wished to save Baron Mikoshiba.

One might consider the invitation was to improve relations between them, but everyone knew that one dinner won’t improve relations immediately.

Just like the relationship between commoners and their lords.

How much time they spent time together decided how close the relationship between them.

Of course, there was special circumstance like in an action movie where two strangers got close because of the situation in a short time, but unless there was a special circumstance, something like having a close relationship in a short time was near impossible.

(If Baron Mikoshiba didn’t know something that simple then he is a stupid man, but…)

Since the time they had received the letter of invitation, the young man had gathered information related to Baron Mikoshiba Ryouma.

Of course, he might only have the information network of his father who was a viscount, which was not that impressive.

However, from the information they had gathered, it was said that Baron Mikoshiba was not a stupid man.

(But then, why?)

The young man looked anxious while keeping silent.

“What’s wrong? What are you thinking right now?”

​

“Nothing’s wrong, I just wondered why Baron Mikoshiba invited us…”

The young man gazed at the moon floating outside the windows of the carriage while answering his father’s questions.

Black carriages passed the mansion gate one after another.

Tonight, the most splendid banquet was about to be held in Earl Salzberg’s villa located at the Royal capital.