Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Battle for the Porter - Ducal Domain (5)

I was temporarily assigned as Ephrin Lapitess's bodyguard for one week. The bodyguards' quarters were a spacious room right next to Ephrin's. About twenty people were stationed there.

The interior had the feel of a military barracks with multiple bunk beds, and it was an absolute wreck.

Underwear was draped over the ladders leading to the top bunks, drawers were left half-open more often than not, furniture with opposite purposes had been shoved into the same corner, and the trash bins reeked of months of neglect.

"Tough? Here?"

The man picking his nose was the most senior among them. According to him, he'd been guarding Ephrin for fifteen years. Meaning he'd been a bodyguard since the child was one year old.

"That's what the Duke told me."

"Hmm. His Grace doesn't know much, does he?"

He flicked his booger somewhere and flopped back onto his bed.

"This is the cushiest post in the entire empire. Am I right?"

"Yes, sir!"

Everyone shouted in unison at the senior guard's words. Wasn't Ephrin's room right next door? Was it really fine to be this rowdy?

"But why'd this guy suddenly get transferred to our unit?"

The question came from a man dangling his hair down from a top bunk like a ghost — the same guy who'd been picking fights with me in the dungeon.

"That's for His Grace to know, not me."

"Hey, I know you're tough and all, but there's a pecking order here, got it? So watch yourself."

As annoying as ever. I just nodded, not wanting to butt heads. But judging by this room alone, the pecking order didn't look like it was being maintained at all.

The Ephrin I knew wasn't like this. No — from the very moment I'd first heard about Ephrin, something had felt off.

- My name? What would you do with that?

- Be quiet. I need to focus.

- You talk too much.

- Shut up. Don't interrupt when I'm speaking.

Whose lines were these? Ephrin's. Said to the supposedly sweet and adorable Marina, no less. Just reading them sent a chill down my spine. Yet that Ephrin was letting these men run wild. I couldn't understand it.

"Ah, it's about time for the young lord's walk."

"B Squad, good luck out there. A Squad's off duty for the walk today."

"B Squad, move out!"

The guards assigned to B Squad let out collective groans. When I sat still, the long-haired one pointed at me.

"Hey, rookie. Go guard the young lord and head out to the garden."

"Me?"

"Who else?"

Fine. The more time I spent with Ephrin, the better. I needed to assess his current state and figure out why the guards were in such shambles when the Ephrin I knew was nothing if not ruthless.

I stepped into the corridor and stood before Ephrin's door, right next to ours. I knocked quietly.

"...Umm, young lord?"

Calling him that felt strange.

"Yes. I'll be right out."

Ephrin's voice, heard for the first time. Truly fragile. It even trembled. There was no way a voice like that had delivered those ice-cold lines.

The door opened. He wore a red necktie with a small black suit. His blue hair was trimmed short and neat above the ears, and his crimson eyes sparkled like jewels, identical to Airi's. Cute enough to make you want to scoop him up in a hug.

"Let's go. You're a bodyguard I haven't seen before."

"Yes. My name is Appari Tion...... young lord."

I gave a proper greeting, but he didn't even look and breezed right past me. That part was more like Ephrin, at least.

"You don't need to be that formal with me. Just take it easy."

What kind of child said "take it easy"? Was this the Ducal House's early education at work? Didn't seem like it, given there wasn't even a tutor.

Ephrin was, in fact, a character who didn't appear until the novel's middle section. Three years into the story's timeline. So there was a bit of an age gap between the Ephrin I knew and the one before me, but I hadn't expected the difference to be this stark.

"You — Appari, was it?"

"Yes."

"First order. Go back inside and sleep. I'll walk to the garden on my own."

Ephrin looked straight up at me as he spoke. There was no force behind those eyes. Not a trace of the bearing a Duke's child should have, and his gaze was more lifeless than an ordinary guard's.

I looked Ephrin up and down in one slow sweep. An obviously rude act, of course. Especially in a medieval class society. Ephrin, as expected, said nothing.

"Understood."

"Good. Thank you for your work today."

I hadn't done anything.

I went straight back to the bodyguards' room.

The room was slightly emptier than before. Probably because B Squad had left. The A Squad guards looked at me as if they'd known I'd be back.

"Told you to go back to sleep, right?"

"Yes."

"That's always the young lord's first order."

The guards snickered.

First impressions mattered. If you looked like a pushover from the start, escaping that perception was near impossible. And these guards saw Ephrin as exactly that — a pushover.

"Nice, right? Cushy gig?"

Sure. If my only goal was earning a steady paycheck, there was no better post. Lax superior, uneventful schedule, generous pay.

If merely existing was the objective, this kind of place wasn't half bad. Or was it the opposite? If you could stomach dying a little every day, then this wasn't half bad.

But every day mattered to me. I had countless girlfriend candidates waiting, and I needed to convey my feelings to them.

"Where does the young lord usually walk?"

"Usually out to Lady's Lake. He enjoys swimming."

"Don't be nervous about the escort duty. He likes strolling alone. He's shy too, so when he swims, he sends everyone away. The guys with seniority just head into town during that time."

As if that were something to brag about, you bastards. I'd gotten all the useful information I could from them.

"I'll step out to the restroom."

"You even know where the restroom is? This estate is huge."

I ignored whoever said that and walked out. Of course I didn't know where the restroom was. I silently leaped out a window and went looking for Lady's Lake.

***

"Hey, how long do you think the young lord's gonna be out there?"

"About an hour, probably. With that constitution? Come on."

"But it feels like the time's been getting longer lately. Just me?"

I slipped away from the rambling guards and made my way toward Lady's Lake. There was no need to be particularly stealthy. The patrol points that should have been airtight were full of gaps.

Were these men bodyguards, or scarecrows? That was what I wanted to ask. Of course, even real bodyguards would've had trouble detecting my movement.

Lady's Lake was a general term for a small, artificially created lake and the surrounding forest.

'It's quiet.'

That was my immediate impression upon entering the forest. Being artificial, there were no wild animals, no birds, not even the sound of flowing water. Only the occasional rustle of leaves brushing against each other in the wind.

When I'd asked a servant about Lady's Lake, he'd praised it effusively. A must-visit for any noble who came to the Ducal Domain.

It certainly had unusual trees. Expensive-looking flowers bloomed everywhere. To me, though, it felt less like a place of peace and more like a place that sold peace. Probably because it lacked any sense of vitality. Thinking of it that way only put me in a worse mood.

So Ephrin was in this gloomy place. Before long, I arrived at the lakeshore.

Ephrin, who should have been swimming, was nowhere to be found.

"Young lord?"

I put on the voice of a clueless new bodyguard. A masterful performance, honed by years of broadcasting.

But no one answered.

"Young lord! Young lord, where are you?"

Now I was playing the frantic new bodyguard. With physical acting layered in, it was practically a one-man show.

That should be enough to establish my excuse.

I looked at the lake. A lake without a single ripple. The water bared its bottom as if declaring its own innocence. Emeralds had been laid across the lakebed to make it appear even clearer.

"Aren't you the new bodyguard I told to go sleep?"

A voice came from behind me. Ephrin, obviously. I spun around with a convincing show of alarm. Ephrin stood in the exact same prim outfit as when I'd first seen him moments ago.

"Ah, but still, sleeping on my very first day didn't feel right. I was worried about you, young lord, so I came to check."

"Hmm, I see. Didn't the seniors tell you? I like being alone. Could you step away for a moment?"

Ephrin spoke in a gentle voice. He even guided me toward the exit himself. No wonder people treated him like a pushover. In the novel, Ephrin was the embodiment of cold detachment, yet here he was doing this. A little funny, honestly.

"There are no animals or dangerous insects here. So you don't need to worry about me."

Ephrin spoke again when I lingered. He even took my hand and tried to lead me out.

Still too young, perhaps. Acting requires the unification of mind, spirit, and body to inhabit another person entirely. Ephrin hadn't yet reached that level of method.

Because when you grabbed someone's hand this openly, with palms this calloused and stiff, anyone would notice.

"Young lord."

I didn't budge even as Ephrin pulled. Ephrin looked up at me with anxious eyes.

"Wh-what?"

"Let's stop the act. I'll drop mine too — my lady."

The instant those words left my mouth, Ephrin's expression went rigid. The trembling pupils settled into a still, dark calm.

"What are you talking about?"

His — no, her voice was colder than a sheet of ice. Yes. This was the Ephrin I knew.

From the very start, I'd thought it was absurd to call Ephrin "young lord." Because Ephrin was a woman. Even when the butler had mentioned the youngest son, I'd wondered whether the Ducal Estate had some other person I didn't know about.

"Young lord — no, my lady. Are you not a woman?"

"...You're insulting me."

The ornamental sword at Ephrin's hip was drawn. Her quick-draw was no joke. She'd trained considerably. Better than Airi.

When I'd looked her up and down in the corridor earlier, what had caught my eye were hands thick with calluses. The Duke was certainly inattentive. Even for a man of letters, how could he fail to recognize the hands of a knight?

"That's not what I......"

"Shut up. Don't interrupt when I'm speaking."

Ephrin glared. Then she pressed the sword to my throat. Blue mana was densely concentrated at the blade's tip.

"How did you find out?"

"I can't tell you that."

"This is a secret of the Ducal Estate. If I tell my father, you'll be framed for a crime you didn't commit and executed."

Yes, Duke Lapitess was that kind of man. I already knew, so it didn't faze me.

"Then would you mind if I shared a new secret with His Grace?"

"What do you mean?"

"The secret that you, my lady, have been sneaking into a dungeon that's formed near Lady's Lake."

At my words, Ephrin was struck speechless. Of course she was. Being female might be the Ducal House's secret, but the fact that she'd been training — that was a secret she'd kept entirely to herself.

Just as Ephrin was about to speak, murmuring drifted in from outside the forest. The bodyguards' shift must have come around.

She slid the ornamental sword back into her belt and, in the instant before the guards could spot us, said quietly:

"You're coming to my room tonight. Otherwise, I'll have you summarily executed for insulting a noble."

When the guards approached Ephrin, she shrank her shoulders again and her voice resumed its trembling. Seeing it again, she really did act well. Just with the occasional slip here and there.

The guards' attention focused not on the same-as-always Ephrin, but on me.

"Huh? What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to be in the room?"

"I got lost looking for the restroom and ended up here."

"What kind of nonsense is that?"

You didn't need to know. From between the guards, Ephrin shot me a fierce glare. Anyway — was it really okay to sneak into a girl's room at night?

Of course, lifelong single as I was, even I knew this wasn't a green light. If I had to assign it a traffic-light color, it would be the same red as her eyes.