Chapter 38

Chapter 38. The Soaring Firebird (1)

After returning from the marquess’s house, as time passed, the way other people looked at me gradually began to change.

Word of what had happened at the marquess’s house had spread among the people.

My exploits there had reached them after being exaggerated and distorted in all sorts of ways.

Some people came to think of me as a once-in-a-generation lucky prodigy, while others believed I was a sinister strategist with dozens of schemes coiled inside my head.

Of course, the majority heard the version that had been deliberately toned down. They only knew me as an illegitimate son who, through sheer luck, had done things far beyond what suited his age.

Whatever the case, my standing inside the estate had improved greatly compared to before I went to the marquess’s house.

But that was not an entirely good thing.

Just as the knights and officials had begun to take notice of me, the duchess had begun keeping an eye on me as well.

She must have had her own channels for news, so she would have heard what happened at the marquess’s house. It was only natural that she would become wary of me.

'It should not be natural! What if she gets the wrong idea about me and it turns out like it did with the second duchess?!'

That woman had caused my death several times already. Just thinking about it was enough to make me feel as though I would develop a neurosis.

Things I knew nothing about kept happening one after another, and since I still had not decided how I ought to live in the future, I had to be careful not to die.

While I spent each day cautiously under those changed gazes, Juan came to see me.

"Juan is here. Shall I tell him to come in?"

When Juan arrived, Flora made him wait outside the door, then came in and asked me.

'She could just let him in.'

Flora did not care much for Juan.

Like Mother and most of the servants, she believed that I had only distinguished myself at the marquess’s house through luck.

After hearing the story, Mother had scolded me for quite a while, and Flora had sulked for a long time as well.

Since I knew they were both doing it out of concern for me, I had no choice but to endure the discomfort for quite some time.

Things were settled now, but for that very reason, she still disliked Juan.

On top of that, since Mother’s health had improved thanks to the money I had given him, Juan had begun declaring himself my subordinate, so whenever he came to see me, Flora’s irritation only grew worse.

It was only after I told her to let him in that Juan was allowed to enter.

Perhaps because he happened to be off duty, Juan came in wearing ordinary clothes.

As Flora passed by beside him, she let out a small snort so I would not hear it.

But thanks to my ears having grown much sharper after the real combat I experienced at the marquess’s house, I heard it perfectly well.

"I’ll apologize on Flora’s behalf."

"It’s all right. She’s only like that because she’s worried about you, Young Master."

With a bitter smile, he shook his head.

"More importantly, what is it?"

Juan was not the kind of man who would come looking for me for no reason when I had not summoned him.

"A mercenary called the Firebird Hunter has arrived."

I jumped to my feet at once.

The person I had been waiting for had come.

I left the estate with Juan.

Once again, it drove home the fact that my position had changed after my trip to the marquess’s house.

Until now, going outside the estate had not been easy.

I might have been an illegitimate son, but I was still the duke’s child, and since I was still young, I had needed people to protect me when going out.

But because of my position as an illegitimate son, it had been difficult to make such requests of anyone besides my own people or Mother’s maids.

Still, after my return from the marquess’s house, there was no longer any need to request it separately.

Though I was with Juan, no soldier tried to stop me from going out, nor did anyone look worried.

Once we crossed the broad front courtyard and stepped out through the main gate, the city district lined with luxurious homes came into view.

The duke’s estate stood in the northern part of the city. And beneath it stretched a district of high-end residences.

It was where the nobles under the duke’s command who lived in the city resided, along with high-ranking officials, knights, and influential merchants. In other words, it was where the uppermost class of the city lived.

The roads were clean, and though the buildings could not compare to the duke’s estate, they were still large and splendid.

After walking for quite some time, we reached the central plaza.

Centered around that central plaza, to the east lay

the temple and the ordinary residential district, while to the west stood the market, workshops, and the commercial guilds. To the south lay Mercenary Street and the residential quarter where the lower classes lived.

I turned my steps southward.

It was my first time going there as well. But since I had already had more than enough experience in the marquess’s territory, I was not especially worried.

"This is rather different from what I expected...."

"Haha, even if they’re the same mercenaries, the atmosphere is bound to differ from territory to territory."

When I looked over the street with a somewhat sour expression, Juan laughed and explained.

Mercenary Street in our own territory was just as noisy and untidy as the one in the marquess’s territory.

But unlike theirs, this street felt somewhat tense.

Perhaps because the sun had not yet gone down, there were hardly any drunken people making a racket, nor were there any brawls in sight.

Everyone was simply busy going their own way, either alone or with companions.

"It feels a little bleaker than the marquess’s territory, doesn’t it? That’s because our territory keeps a tighter rein on the mercenaries than most others. Our duke values safety within the territory, so he does not overlook mercenary crimes or misconduct."

While listening to his explanation of the atmosphere, I ended up hearing yet another unexpected compliment about the duke.

As always, when it came to work, the duke really was capable.

Everywhere I went, both inside the estate and outside it, I heard people praising the duke.

If I had not been the duke’s illegitimate son but an ordinary subject of the territory instead, I might have been praising him just as they did.

But I could never stand in the same position as them.

After passing through Mercenary Street, which, though somewhat different from the marquess’s territory, still looked lively enough, we arrived in front of an inn.

The Red Rose Mercenary Inn.

It was a name that did not suit a mercenary inn at all, but seeing the neat atmosphere of the place, I had to admit that it did suit it in its own way.

"It’s the most expensive inn on this street. Probably the most expensive one outside the inns up in the northern district."

The mercenary who had asked to be called the Firebird Hunter this time as well had taken a room in the finest inn on Mercenary Street.

She clearly was not a member of any mercenary company and seemed to be a lone mercenary, yet both this time and last time, she had chosen good inns without hesitation, and I could not understand how.

Perhaps she was the daughter of a wealthy house, or perhaps she had struck it rich while working as a mercenary.

Could it be that the way she became wealthy had something to do with the sword engraved with that emblem?

With that thought in mind, I entered the inn.

The first-floor dining room looked quiet.

She was seated among mostly empty tables.

"Over here! Over here. You’re early."

She waved her hand at me.

Juan and I walked over to her table.

Seeing Juan following behind me, she asked,

"And who’s this?"

If he had been dressed in his usual military uniform, the question would never have come up, but in plain clothes Juan only looked like a large commoner.

"His name is Juan. He’s a soldier who’s accompanying me today."

"Accompanying you?"

At my words, she looked puzzled, and Juan let out a bitter smile and shook his head.

"I serve Young Master Alex. I have not escorted him today so much as simply guided him here."

Only then did she nod.

"So, a nominal escort. Something like that?"

It was not exactly the same, but it was not entirely wrong either.

I climbed up into the chair in front of her.

Tch. When exactly was I going to grow taller? Even now, when I sat in a chair, my feet still barely reached the floor.

"You took longer than I expected. I thought perhaps you wouldn’t be coming."

I had expected her to arrive only a few days after I did, yet she was late by several months.

"I finished getting things in order quickly enough, but something got tangled up, and I was delayed taking care of it."

Something got tangled up.... It was the sort of phrase that made me uneasy the moment I heard it.

Still, since she said she had resolved it, I needed to focus on what was in front of me first.

"Since I’ve come all the way here, can you tell me now?"

She had not even properly finished exchanging greetings before going straight to the point. At a glance, it was obvious how impatient she was.

I looked around.

The place might have seemed quiet, but it was not empty.

"Is it all right to talk about it here?"

At my words, she too made an uncomfortable face.

"That would be a problem.... And it would be awkward if too many people heard...."

She said that while glancing at Juan standing behind me.

He still had not taken a seat. I found myself liking that. It seemed he had properly established his place.

Before I could answer, Juan spoke first.

"Why don’t the two of you talk in a room? I’ll wait down here."

As expected, he was quick to understand.

If only the others, especially the knights, were that perceptive.

Leaving Juan on the first floor, she and I went upstairs.

Her room, located farther inside on the second floor, was quite large and looked comfortable.

One could almost call it the suite of this inn.

"Hurry and tell me! How did you know?"

The moment we stepped inside, she rushed at me with her eyes blazing.

Seen another way, it was a situation where a woman and a man were alone in a room, and the woman was suddenly pressing close to the man.

But no matter who looked at it, it would have been difficult to entertain any strange thoughts.

If anything, with a woman much bigger than me suddenly lunging at me, I found it a little frightening.

"Uh, w-wouldn’t it be better if we sat down and talked?"

Even without trying to act, a trembling voice came out of me naturally.

At my words, she withdrew with an awkward expression.

Once I had finally caught my breath, the two of us sat facing each other across the table in the center of the room.

She looked somewhat restless, but she did not urge me again.

Hm. What should I do?

Seeing her like that, I briefly fell into thought.

Would it really be right to take her to the tomb, or would it be better to deceive her somehow, or forcefully take the sword from her, and then go confirm things by myself?

But no matter how I thought about it, the latter could not be the answer.

Taking the sword by force, or killing her and taking it, was impossible for me alone, and asking for someone else’s help would only mean increasing the number of people who knew.

Moreover, there was no guarantee that things would unfold as I expected if I went there holding nothing but the sword.

It would be difficult to pry information out of her in secret, and in the end, if I wanted to confirm the tomb, the best course was to take her with me.

Even so, bringing her to the tomb was not an entirely good thing either.

The question was whether or not I could trust her.

Until now, she had shown me enough good qualities to make that seem possible, but there was no guarantee she would show the same face once we were inside the tomb, or even if treasure were found.

And that would be a problem as well. If treasure really was found, how were we to divide it? And what were we to do if it turned out to be something that could not be divided?

We needed to think those things through beforehand.

With that in mind, I took a bundle of papers out from my clothes.

"What’s that?"

Instead of answering her question, I began with my own side of the story.

"The emblem engraved on that sword. I saw that soaring bird emblem in a tomb."

"Really? It was definitely a tomb?"

At my words, she forgot her previous question at once and immediately shot one back.

"Yes. It was a tomb with an empty coffin inside."

"That’s right! That’s the place I’ve been looking for! Where is it?"

She leaned forward as though she meant to devour me on the spot.

It was a face completely unlike the one I had seen before. Evidently, this was even more important to her than I had thought.

In that case, what I was about to do became even more important.

"Before I tell you where it is."

I set the blank papers down on the table. Then I took out the ink and quill pen I had brought from the estate and placed them beside the papers.

She looked at the things I had laid out with a bewildered expression.

"What is all this?"

"We’ll write up a contract."

Taking up the pen, I wrote a title across the paper.

Contract Regarding the Exploration of the Tomb

Then I turned the paper toward her and set it in front of her.

"We’ll put everything in writing after discussing it in detail, so that no problems arise. Oaths concerning each other’s safety, the division of whatever comes out of the tomb, even the sharing of information. There’s still plenty of time before night falls, and if that’s not enough, we have tomorrow and the day after as well."

Smiling, I looked at the Firebird Hunter, who was staring at the contract with a stunned expression.

It was easy enough to understand that face. She could never have expected me to suddenly produce something like this, so it must have felt as though she had been struck hard.

But I intended to do this contract properly.

I was not the one in a hurry, so the more carefully it was drafted, the more certain it was that the benefit would tilt in my favor.