Chapter 26
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Chapter 26
An exceedingly gaunt man. The kind of thin that suggested he'd never eaten a proper meal in his life.
"What if you trip over your own feet?"
The man flared up in anger.
"Judging by your attire, you're neither a servant nor the young lady of this house. What business do you have in The Lord's storage shed? Did you receive permission to enter?"
The most suspicious-looking man of all thrust his chin forward, turning the tables to make me the questionable one.
Yet if anyone looked suspicious here, it was surely you, with those dark circles threatening to swallow your cheeks whole...?
I removed my soil-stained gloves and set them aside.
"I did receive permission. My name is Enya. Hasn't The Lord mentioned me?"
"Enya?"
He muttered as if the name meant nothing to him.
"And who exactly are you?"
"I, I am...."
Thump.
Mid-sentence, the man collapsed.
"Hello?"
I stepped forward and checked the pulse beneath his jaw. He was still breathing.
"Hungry... starv...."
"...."
Grrrrrrrrrrowl, grrrrrrrrrrowl.
It was nearly the sound of thunder.
* * *
"I think it would be wise to conduct a comprehensive re-survey of all the fiefdoms at this opportunity."
"The entire territory, Your Majesty?"
Dale sat with a furrowed brow, working through the accumulated paperwork.
"Can't it be done?"
"No, Your Majesty! It's an excellent idea!"
After Enya uncovered the corruption in the border fiefdom, investigations were launched into all the other territories as well.
The maps marking the boundaries of each fiefdom in the Empire were far too old, and numerous changes had occurred over the years—territorial disputes, border conflicts, and the like.
The greatest reason, however, was what the Previous Emperor had done.
He not only turned a blind eye to those who pleased him expanding their fiefdoms without justification, but actively stepped forward to reward them for doing so.
When fiefdoms expanded, naturally the taxes owed should have increased accordingly, yet the tax rates for these lords remained unchanged.
This meant the Previous Emperor had knowingly allowed them to illegally accumulate wealth—continuing to levy taxes based on the previously surveyed territories while permitting them to keep the additional income from their unlawfully expanded lands.
"Conduct it discreetly."
"Where should we begin? The Western Region? The Eastern Region? I believe, since Duke Hexagon is under house arrest, we should investigate his territory first."
"How long has Max Hexagon been confined?"
Dale, who maintained a posture so rigid it seemed stiff, set down his pen and looked toward his chief aide.
"Nine years and seven months, Your Majesty."
"Six months remaining, then."
Dale's eyes narrowed slightly as he picked up his pen and quietly wrote a curse word on the official document.
"Your Majesty. That is a state document."
"It's a memorial advocating for Duke Hexagon's reinstatement. Do you wish to read it, Soho?"
"How did such a thing even end up there...? I'll dispose of it at once."
Soho quietly accepted the document Dale handed him without even looking, and destroyed it.
'I'm beginning to understand His Majesty less and less.'
After meeting the lady, he seemed to be in good spirits despite his fatigue. But lately, I cannot tell whether he is in good spirits or not.
'He's not the type to worry about things.'
The Emperor was a man who, once he set his mind to something, would see it through to the end.
He had ultimately found Adeline, and his bold decision to go retrieve her was—in Soho's view—truly remarkable.
Soho recalled past events.
"...What could it mean to vanish overnight right after receiving a proposal of marriage?"
The entrance examination to enter the Imperial Palace had not been more difficult than that question back then.
And I remember how frustrated His Majesty was at that time. Though he eventually met Adeline.
'Even His Majesty cannot continue living a lie indefinitely.'
For some reason, over the past three years, work had been pouring in like a tidal wave. As if someone had cast a strange curse upon them to work themselves to death.
It was certain that things would only get busier ahead.
The comprehensive survey of the entire Empire had not even begun yet.
Once the precise measurements were complete, disputes between fiefdoms would inevitably arise. By then, Duke Hexagon—whom I had kept restrained—would likely emerge and probably....
"I should go."
The moment Soho, burdened with worry, came into view, Dale rose from his seat.
Night had fallen without notice.
"I will find a way for His Majesty to relocate to the Capital."
"Are you thinking of telling the lady about me?"
Dale stared at him as if he would not forgive even the slightest slip of the tongue.
"But Your Majesty, your body is deteriorating, is it not?"
"Enough."
Dale, who had been watching him intently, immediately tore a magic scroll.
He left for Grunvalt without uttering another word.
"You are truly remarkable, Your Majesty...."
Soho donned the Emperor's robes in his stead, concealed his face with a mask, and made his way to the Emperor's bedchamber.
He dutifully played the role of the Emperor's double, lying his body upon the spacious bed.
And he shed a single tear.
'I want to leave work....'
It was an ordinary night, approaching three months since he had last left the palace.
* * *
"I'm back...."
"Dale! You're home?"
Dale froze in place as he entered the house.
"...There seems to be something strange in the house."
Dale stared at the man with the expression of someone viewing trash that had no business being in a newlywed's home. He looked somewhat pale.
I glanced sideways at the man who was eating hastily.
"This person? Well, he was collapsed, so I brought him here."
"You mean he was collapsed."
Dale's expression darkened further as he looked at him.
"That's precisely the sort of person you must be most cautious of. Enya. You should come over here."
"He was collapsed at the Lord's Castle."
"Then it would suffice to report him to the Lord of Grunvalt. Why...."
Dale's expression suddenly grew dark.
"Did he perhaps catch your fancy."
"...? No? He's a thief."
I was certain of this man's identity.
"When I caught him, the scent of herbs was radiating from his body. And look at his fingertips?"
The man's fingertips were stained yellow.
It was from chewing on herb stems and the juice seeping out. The yellowish tint around his mouth was for the same reason.
Dale continued to regard the man with suspicion while protecting me. He hid me behind his back and stared at the man.
"Cough."
"...."
"Ugh.... Now I can truly live. Thank you. I'm truly grateful. Miss."
"He was eating them out of hunger, that's for sure."
I whispered to Dale.
This man was a servant who had only recently been employed at the Lord's Castle. A servant primarily tasked with maintaining the castle's cleanliness.
"I apologize. There's much work to be done, and payday is still far away, and there's nothing to eat...."
"But since he ate what he stole, I brought him along for now. It would be troublesome if he ran away."
"What manner of compensation do you wish to obtain?"
Dale asked me quietly.
But it seemed there was no way to obtain substantial material compensation from this man.
The fact that he stirred an inexplicable sense of pity was an added discomfort.
But he has his uses.
"The way he selectively ate the herbs shows he possesses knowledge."
"...!"
Suddenly the man's eyes widened. He quickly covered his face in apparent alarm.
An unusually gaunt frame and relentless appetite. And a person who lived in hiding, fleeing from their true identity.
A scene from the original story surfaced in my mind.
She could not escape the room. The lock, meticulously crafted by a man renowned as the Empire's greatest alchemist and blacksmith, could not be opened by any means.
Obtaining a new key was equally impossible. The Emperor, fearful that someone might help her escape, had the man who forged the lock put to death.
With the death of one who had played such a crucial role in crafting weapons for the Imperial Knights, the Imperial Palace descended into chaos.
That alchemist and the original heroine had spoken together several times.
The Empress, having entered the Imperial Palace with nothing to do and bored out of her mind, had wandered the palace grounds when she happened upon him at work—and that was how their acquaintance began.
The Empress had praised his abilities and acknowledged his talent.
And that alchemist, perhaps....
'He had earned a reputation for conducting only bizarre research and had been despised, wandering from region to region.'
He possessed a distinctive characteristic.
It was one of the reasons the Empress had first taken an interest in him.
"You really ate that because you were starving, didn't you?"
"...I-I'm terribly sorry."
The man with his head bowed trembled violently. He knelt before me and looked up.
His cheeks were gaunt and hollow, and the skin beneath his eyes was particularly dark.
And there was a smell. The smell of someone suffering from a grave illness.
'There was a reason the alchemist in the original story couldn't even resist.'
And that reason was.
The illness he suffered from.
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