Chapter 51

Chapter : 51

I got out of the carriage and set foot in Ingrid.

Cold rose from the hard ground. The gentle winter wind was sharp, as though mixed with powdered stone. When I breathed in, it felt as if my airways were freezing.

Faced with the bitter cold I had only ever heard about, I put on another coat.

Perhaps Agares had informed them of my visit in advance, because the soldiers proceeded like machines the moment they saw me.

They recorded several things, then led me inside the lord’s castle.

As I trailed after them, I looked over their uniforms. They practically screamed that they were standing army.

Agares, of course, had the diamond mine that any proper Grand Duke of the North seemed to own at least one of, and with tax-exemption benefits on top of that, he was unlikely to be short on money.

It seemed he had invested that money into the military. The soldiers’ equipment was of good quality.

Ingrid’s land was vast, yet farming it was difficult.

The cold itself could be overcome by planting things like rye or potatoes, but crops could not withstand the curse laid upon the land.

The only things that poked their heads out of Ingrid’s soil were weeds.

Because of that, food was brought in from elsewhere, though they at least attempted to produce their own meat.

The territory maintained a massive ranch, managing it by grazing livestock there and obtaining meat that way.

I followed the soldier into the lord’s castle, and soon arrived at Agares’s audience chamber. The soldier gave me a respectful bow, then left to do his work. I knocked on Agares’s door.

“Come in.”

I opened the door and entered.

Agares was wearing enormous plate armor.

Agares was already larger than most people to begin with, and with armor on top of that, he had the bearing of a giant.

There were even pauldrons attached to both sides of the armor, making his shoulders look wide enough for five heads to fit across.

“It is good to see you. I have come like this to keep our promise.”

“I have been waiting. You must have had a hard time coming all this way.”

Agares spoke with a faint smile.

“It has been quite some time since the semester ended. Have you been well?”

“Yes. Well. I accomplished everything I intended to accomplish.”

“That is good to hear.”

I asked Agares how he had been as well, then brought up what I had been curious about.

“Yes.... But why the armor?”

“Because if I get hurt, it hurts. Everyone dislikes pain.”

I had meant to ask why he was wearing armor even here, rather than only when going out to fight, but I did not bother pressing him.

I shifted the topic naturally.

“Your Grace, the promise we made at the time was that I would help with the subjugation. But we never settled the details. What should I do?”

“Hmm....”

Agares held his chin and looked over what I was wearing, then said,

“Change clothes first. Put on armor, then wear a coat over it.”

“Yes.”

Agares ordered a nearby attendant to give me a room. As I followed the attendant, I stole glances around me.

The atmosphere was different from what I had expected. In name, I was certainly here to help with the subjugation, but I had thought he would at least receive me as a guest on the first day.

Yet to prepare for a subjugation the moment I arrived was harsher than I had anticipated.

I put on the armor I had brought separately. As always, one never knew what might happen, so I had brought sturdy armor that would keep me from getting hurt even if someone rammed into me.

Preparation always had to be thorough.

After putting it on, I wrapped myself in a windbreaker that could at least block the wind. Because the armor was large, anything thicker than that would have made it difficult to move. Once I had put on the armor, I returned to Agares.

Agares tapped the edge of the desk with his fingertips.

“Are those all the clothes you brought?”

“No, not exactly, but anything thicker than this makes it hard to move.”

“Hmm.... Very well. Then come sit here. I will explain the schedule.”

Using a map marked with unit symbols, Agares taught me the location of each outpost and the places where monsters or Demons were likely to be.

The details were so thorough that it felt as though I would definitely be participating in combat too.

“You must be tired from traveling so far, so rest for today. The subjugation begins tomorrow.”

After hearing his entire explanation, it seemed I was doomed. I had a feeling I would have to fight too.

No, I had come to join the subjugation, yes, but the picture I had drawn in my head was of me standing off to the side like an accessory, not truly throwing myself into the subjugation.

Agares had always fought a large portion of his battles alone because he hated wasting soldiers.

This development was different from the original.

But I was in no position to argue about it.

I nodded as though I accepted it and moved to the room Agares had given me.

There were many rooms here, but only one had been prepared to receive a guest. Compared to the scale of the castle, there were few attendants.

I set the chili powder down in a corner, lay on the bed, and rested.

---

Then I dozed off, and in the middle of the night, hunger woke me.

“What, do they not feed guests here? No... Am I not a guest?”

I chewed on a piece of jerky I had brought and went to find Agares. He was drinking alone.

“Why? Can you not sleep? Would you like a cup as well?”

My tolerance was low, but this was a body that did not suffer hangovers. Still, the thought that I might have to swing a sword tomorrow weighed heavily on my mind, so I refused.

Without even pretending to be disappointed, he poured himself another drink.

“I heard that Your Grace faces enormous monsters alone, so I am curious why you lead so many soldiers during subjugations.”

Agares opened the hand that had been holding his glass.

Black power crept upward, took hold of the glass, and shook it. The contents sloshed in circles.

“This power. I gained it because I wanted it, but it is not particularly good.”

“Pardon?”

“Most who borrow a Devil’s power pawn their souls. Devils lend power in exchange for taking their contractors’ souls when they die. That is the usual contract.”

It was information I already knew. I silently waited for Agares’s next words.

“I am a little different. I gained power incomparably stronger than ordinary Dark Mages, but in exchange, I wagered something greater.”

Agares beat his own chest with his fist.

“This body. When the time comes, the Devil I contracted with will come to take my body.”

“Ah....”

There had been such a setting. In the original, even near the latter half of the story, Agares showed almost no sign of having his body taken, but there was no guarantee that would be true here as well.

I closed my mouth.

Agares pointed at the ceiling with his index finger, then tapped his own head.

“When I was struck by that mage bastard’s lightning, I realized it. If I waste this power, the time when my body is taken will come sooner.”

“Ahh.”

That was probably why he was being cautious.

“I understand.”

“Are you leaving already?”

“I am frightened by tomorrow’s battle, so my mind is unsettled. I think I will go back and meditate.”

“Very well. Do that.”

“Then I will see you tomorrow.”

Once I faced reality, gloom settled over me. I had thought a day like this might come eventually. I had to fight in order to kill something. It was something I had never done before. I had sparred hundreds of times in practice, but I had never tried to kill anything.

As I headed to the bedroom, I resolved myself. Do not hesitate. If you have to do it, then do it.

---

During the next day’s subjugation, I rode a horse and moved with Agares.

He led a standing army whose state of armament was excellent. Judging by their attire, it seemed the soldiers who stood guard and the soldiers who went directly into subjugations were separated.

Even the sentries had been more tightly disciplined than ordinary soldiers, but these men were even more so.

Well, they might not border an enemy nation, but they were still soldiers on the front line. Even during the long march, they did not so much as chat.

Agares explained the terrain, the monsters, and such without asking my opinion, then suddenly spoke to me.

“Which do you think is more urgent to drive out, Demons or monsters?”

For the first time, Agares asked me a question. It did not seem as though he was trying to obtain a plan or information. He seemed purely curious about my thoughts. I answered honestly.

“Monsters. Although Demons use a different language, communication with them is not impossible. But monsters are different. As time passes, they become even more...”

Agares cut me off. He furrowed his brows.

“Wrong. The urgent ones are Demons. They expand their power faster than monsters grow. Watch carefully today.”

With the soldiers behind us, Agares and I left the territory and roamed the surrounding area. We mainly intruded into the living areas of demi-humans and showed ourselves to them. Some races fled the moment they saw us, while others occasionally rushed at us outright.

Before they could even approach us, they died pierced by arrows.

My heart pounded. Startled, I looked at Agares. Agares was looking at me too. Our eyes met.

It seemed he was testing me.

But it was hard to understand what he was trying to test. It felt as though he was deliberately showing me the sight of demi-humans being killed.

Why?

I did not know. What was certain was that not making a scene here would be the most beneficial choice for me.

And yet, even then, I did not know.

I was selfish, so my own survival and happy life came first.

So I had to keep my mouth shut here. Besides, I even knew why Agares had contracted with a Devil.

It had been because of an assault by a group of demi-humans. It was natural for Agares to hate demi-humans.

But there was something else I was curious about.

It would only satisfy my curiosity, and I doubted Agares would get angry over it, so I said,

“I do not understand. What good is there in owning land that cannot even be cultivated? Why go out of your way to drive them out?”

“This place produces no grain. There are not many animals to hunt either. What do you think those things eat?”

“Monsters, I suppose. If they hunt monsters, is that not beneficial to Your Grace as well?”

“What do you think happens if they fail? They come down into my territory. Demons are usually wretched, but there are exceptional ones among them. They leap over the castle walls and steal my wealth. Killing a few of my soldiers in the process is merely a bonus.”

I closed my mouth. I was an outsider.

I did not know the worries Agares had borne here, and I did not know the suffering the people of this place must have felt. If I started chattering about human lives and whatnot here, it would only be stupid noise.

I murmured that I was the strange one. Because I was an outsider, I was finding fault in a pointless place. Here, this was natural. And so I resolved to keep my mouth firmly shut.

---

I spent the day following Agares around. Night fell, and the stars glittered. We returned to the lord’s castle.

As soon as we returned to the castle, Agares sought alcohol as expected.

Blood excited people. It added fatigue to the mind. Agares was not free from that either, and it seemed he was trying to erase it with alcohol.

“May I join you today?”

“Do as you please.”

All I had done during today’s subjugation was follow Agares around.

It was probably Agares’s spiteful way of tormenting me. That made me angry. I intended to make tears and snot pour from his face too.

I borrowed the kitchen. I used flour to make tteok.

I made Tteokbokki, adding chili powder without restraint. Like steel thrown into a blast furnace, the sauce blazed as it swallowed the tteok. Even though I had trained my tongue and become accustomed to spiciness, the Tteokbokki was so red it frightened me deep down.

When the smell of the sauce stabbed my nose, coughs burst from me.

Carrying the Tteokbokki, I returned to Agares. While waiting for me, Agares seemed to have downed several glasses of alcohol on his own.

“Is that the same food you made before? It is rather red today.”

“Yes. The one I made before differed a little from the original recipe. This is the original. It should taste far better than the previous one.”

I held the Tteokbokki out to Agares and waited expectantly.

A man whose complexion did not change even when he drank liquor like water, a man who merely frowned a little even when stabbed with a knife.

Would he be able to let this pass as if it were nothing too?

Agares stabbed a piece of tteok with his fork and put it in his mouth.

“It is spicy.”

With the tteok from the fork in his mouth, Agares said that. He blinked, then exhaled a long breath through his nose. His facial muscles twitched freely.

“Are you trying to poison me? Poison cannot kill me, you know.”

“It is just spicy food.”