It was something completely unexpected.
“Roan Tale. For you to come find me……”
Kallum Rinse looked straight into Roan’s eyes, who was sitting on the other side.
Roan faintly smiled and raised his teacup.
“The tea’s fragrance is good.”
“Stop with the nonsense. For what reason did you come find me?”
Kallum found Roan awkward.
No, he was unpleasant, annoying, and enraging.
‘If it wasn’t only for this bastard……’
By now, the one who was going ahead in the throne succession competition would surely had been him.
Obviously, there was no way his mood was good.
At Kallum’s intimidation, Roan put down the cup and answered.
“I came to visit because I have words I need to tell your highness.”
“To me?”
Kallum creased his forehead.
“Yes.”
Roan nodded his head and took out a small envelope from his chest pocket.
It was a rather weighty looking envelope.
“What is that?”
At the completely sharp question, Roan took out tens of letters from within the envelope.
Instantly, Kallum’s face laughably twisted.
“Those are……”
The tens of letters.
They were the secret and ugly letters that Kallum had shared with Elton Coat and Reitas Pershion.
The stories of him trying to kill Simon using Elton and the stories of him using Reitas to kill Roan were meticulously written.
The tip of his fingers sharply trembled.
‘Yes. I knew a day like this would come some day……’
In truth, the puzzled feeling inside him was great until now.
From looking at Roan’s actions, it was obvious that he had obtained the letters he shared with Elton and Reitas.
But despite that, no exposure, blackmail, placation, leak, or anything happened.
He tried to passed it off as Roan’s personality, but the nervous feeling couldn’t be helped.
‘If these letters are revealed……’
The moment his thought led to that point.
As if he had read Kallum’s thought, Roan threw the same question.
“What do you think would happen if those letters are revealed, your highness?”
Kallum didn’t answer.
No, he couldn’t.
Roan cheerfully smiled and continued his words.
“It won’t end with merely being ousted from the throne succession competition. If the fact that Prince Kallum was behind Elton Coat’s rebellion, it is obvious that you will receive a heavy punishment. At the very least, you will receive exilement.”
It was the truth.
The kingdom was silent of the veiled and political strifes under the name of throne succession competition, but the story would change if a royalty were to shed blood.
Because of that, even Simon Rinse, who currently had built the largest faction, couldn’t carelessly harm Tommy and Kallum.
If the truth that Kallum tried to assassinate Simon was revealed in such situation, he would receive exilement at the very least, or be jailed or be banishment out of the kingdom at the extreme.
“Are you threatening me?”
Kallum glared at Roan with glowing and blazing eyes.
Roan shook his head.
“Rather than a threat, but I wish to negotiate.”
“Negotiate?”
At the unexpected words, Kallum creased his forehead.
Roan faintly smiled and nodded his head.
“Yes. Please listen to one request of mine. If you answer the request, then I will get rid of these letters.”
“A request…… what kind of request is it?”
Kallum was cautious.
Roan, with a composed look, answered.
“Who knows. I’m not sure of that yet, sir. If something I need to request comes up, I will tell you then.”
Kallum’s plot to assassinate Simon wasn’t a small case.
He couldn’t half-heartedly or impetuously use it.
“But in return, I won’t ask for a ridiculous request or a one that needs to touch blood.”
“Hmm……”
Kallum leaked a quiet groan.
If he could, I wished to immediately kick off his seat and slap the side of his face once.
But currently, he was thoroughly standing in the position of the disadvantaged, no, of the loser.
There was neither the strength nor justification to refuse nor defy.
But even so, the one strand of pride he had left twitched.
“Even though I could attack you right now and take those letters?”
At those words, Roan formed a faint smile.
“Do you truly think that is possible, your highness?”
His attitude was truly confident and bold.
In a way, it was a truly arrogant statement.
However, Kallum couldn’t readily refute.
‘If I mobilize the knights and attack, I would easily be able to kill him, but……’
Inevitably, an incredible noise would arise and all the gazes of the capital, Miller, would become focused.
In Kallum’s position, it wasn’t quite an agreeable situation.
With a short sigh, he glared at Roan.
“In you bastard’s position, would it not be much better to reveal those letters? Since I would then be ousted from the throne succession competition, and Tommy too would not be Simon’s match if I were to be ousted. The moment the letters are revealed, throne succession competition would end and Simon would be appointed the Grand Duke of Grain, but why do you make the matter complicated?”
His voice asked as if to bite.
It was an attitude seemingly telling him to reveal the letters instead if he planned to played with him.
Roan faintly smiled as he shook his head.
“Who knows. Perhaps it’s possible that……”
His eyes flashed and shone a light.
“I wish for it to become complicated.”
“Hm? Wish for it to become complicated? What do you mean?”
Kallum creased his forehead.
“Perhaps, do you not wish for Simon to climb up to the Grand Duke of Grain?”
At those words, Roan shook his head.
“I have never said those words, sir. Anyhow, the important thing right now……”
He lightly shook the letters he was holding.
“Is the negotiation between Prince Kallum and me.”
The instant his words finished, Kallum snorted.
“Hmph. Can you even call something like this a negotiation?”
“Who knows. It depends on how one thinks.”
Roan lightly answered, then stared straight into Kallum’s eyes.
Kallum quietly stared at that gaze, then nodded his head.
“Can’t be helped. Since I don’t have the right to choose. For now, I will only be able to follow your wish. But……”
The outline of his eyes became sharp.
“How do I trust you? Could you really be able to get rid of those letters? Since in your position, those letters would be the same as a master key.”
By just having that, he could control him as much as he wished.
‘Of course, I also have no plan to keep being played by that act……’
Kallum tightly clenched his fist.
‘A rat in a corner will bite a cat.’
If Roan kept blackmailing him with those letters as a weapon, he could only go out on a counterattack without caring for before nor after.
‘Since being pushed aside in the throne competition would be the same this way or that.’
At the rage that soared up, his entire body sharply trembled.
“I know well that Prince Kallum isn’t someone who will always be swung around as wished. Just once, you simply need to listen to my request just once, sir.”
Roan knew how to handle Kallum.
He stared straight into Kallum’s eyes.
“Because it didn’t seem that Prince would trust me, I have devised one solution.”
“What is it?”
Kallum thinly opened his eyes.
With a composed voice, Roan answered.
“The locker of erasure.”
“The locker of erasure? You must mean the Delerium magic.”
Delerium magic.
Activating when certain conditions are fulfilled, it usually was a magic used when storing documents or objects for a certain amount of time.
Roan nodded his head and took out a wooden box about two-hands big out of a small bag.
“It is the locker of erasure enchanted with the Delerium magic, sir. I will place Prince’s letters here.”
His voice was still composed.
“I will set the time setting to one year. Whether I request or not, the letters within the locker will be erased on their own once the one year passes.”
Roan continued to add on.
“If I give a request within the one year, and if Prince would listen to it, I will give you this locker’s key.”
The key wasn’t important.
Since the letters would be erased anyhow once the one year passed.
“For the wooden locker, Prince, please keep it.”
“Hmm.”
Kallum leaked a low groan.
It was an excessively good condition than he had thought.
“You will leave this to me? Even though I would then immediately destroy this?”
Roan nodded his head as if saying it did not matter.
“It is fine even if you do so. But after the locker’s magic is activated, a spell is enchanted so that it would teleport on its own if touched or receives an impact without permission. It is set to move to the place I have selected.”
“How meticulous.”
Kallum twisted his lips.
‘Either way, it isn’t such a bad offer.’
He couldn’t trust Roan, but he could trust the locker of erasure.
But there was one thing he couldn’t understand.
‘Even if I would not be swung as he wish, those letters are definitely the same as cards of certain victory. Why would he make the matter complicated even by using the locker of erasure?’
The light in Kallum’s eyes calmed down.
‘Does the guy truly not wish for Simon to become the next king?’
If so.
‘Who is the next king he wishes for?’
Kallum continued on his soliloquy of questions and answers.
‘Perhaps me? Is that why he is trying to erase his debt to me?‘
If so, even though it was wrong, it was a much too incorrect thought.
‘Since the feeling of abhorrence towards him is greater than the feeling of gratefulness. ‘
With the matter this time, such feelings became much stronger.
The very day the locker’s letters disappeared, Kallum planned to mobilize all his strength to rush and corner him.
At that moment.
“Then, I will place the letter inside the locker of erasure.”
Roan placed the letters of ugly contents into the locker and activated the magic.
From the entirety of the locker, a bright light shone out.
“I will leave the locker here, sir.”
Roan opened Kallum’s large desk drawer and placed the locker inside it.
As if it had been waiting, the light disappeared.
“From now on, you cannot carelessly touch it, sir. Since it would be teleported that instant.”
“I know.”
Kallum answered with his forehead creased.
Suddenly, there was a single thought that brushed past his mind.
‘Even though the locker of erasure itself is a greatly precious object, he even placed a teleport spell on it?’
To make that degree of an object, the skill of at least the palace magician’s level was needed to be possible.
Kallum’s face stiffly solidified.
‘Where did the bastard obtain such an object?’
The Rinse Kingdom’s current palace magician had barred himself within a magic tower and was focusing on research.
Kallum as well as anyone, including Simon and Tommy, couldn’t meet him.
‘Then it means that it wasn’t our side’s palace magician, but…… ah!’
Suddenly, a fire lighted with a flash within his head.
There was one place that Roan could obtain the locker of erasure, a one with even a teleport spell attached onto that.
‘Pershion Kingdom!’
Kallum glaringly opened his eyes.
‘This bastard……’
The inside of his head became complicated.
‘This event right now wasn’t done impulsively. At the very least, he had schemed this event from since the Pershion Kingdom. That means……’
It meant that even the request he was going to ask of him was more or less roughly outlined.
‘It wouldn’t be an easy request.’
The inside of his mouth was newly covered bitter.
“Then, I will now leave, your highness.”
Roan carefully closed the desk drawer and lowered his head.
His look was still relaxed and composed.
In front of the reception room’s door, he softly stared at Kallum.
“On the day I present my request, a small bird will tap on Prince’s window.”
Kallum did not say any words.
Like that, Roan once again said his goodbye and disappeared himself.
This was the whole story of the secretive meeting that had happened last winter.
‘And exactly yesterday, a small bird tapped on my window.’
The thing the bird had passed was a single short letter.
‘It was a content instructing to approve the transfer of the Count House’s fief and title.’
As according to the threat, no, negotiation, Kallum answered Roan’s request.
“Prince! Just why……”
“This is a case of attaching wings to Baron Tale!”
“Prince! Prince Kallum!”
The nobles’ outcries hit his ears.
However, Kallum did not show any reaction.
With his statement of approval, Count Io Lancephil’s desire was much too easily fulfilled.
The inside of the grand hall became greatly noisy.
‘Simon. You bastard too should better be careful. Because Roan is much more deceitful bastard than you think.’
Kallum glared at Simon once, then moved his steps.
“Kallum!”
Tommy Rinse called Kallum a moment late.
However, kallum instead hurried his steps and exited out the grand hall.
He soon rode a carriage and headed to his mansion.
‘Is everything now over?’
His expression was complicated.
Rage and annoyance, alleviation and relief were mixed.
“Anyhow, how do I receive the key?”
Either way, the locker’s letters would be erased once the one year passed.
But even so, since he had answered Roan’s request, he needed to receive the locker’s key as promised.
‘Would that bastard personally come?’
In front of his eyes, Roan’s face floated up.
Uddk.
His teeth grinded instinctively.
‘I will definitely pay you back this humiliation of today.’
His desire for revenge blazed up.
Meanwhile, the carriage arrived at the mansion.
“Anyone came to find me?”
At the head butler who came to greet him, he threw a sharp question.
The head butler, with a flustered look, shook his head.
“There was none, sir.”
The head butler answered with a flustered look.
“There was none?”
Kallum pushed aside the retainers who caught up, then quickly headed to the reception room.
‘Do you perhaps plan to break your promise?’
The inside of the reception room was completely empty.
A musty smell pierced his nose.
At that moment.
“Un?”
Kallum’s eyes opened wide.
On the cleanly organized desk.
On top of it, an unfamiliar key was there.
It was a crude key shining with a bronze light.
“Perhaps……”
Kallum, with the key in his hand, carefully opened the drawer the locker was in.
With a slightly nervous expression, he fitted the key into the locker’s hole.
Click.
With a pleasant metallic sound, the locker opened.
Suddenly, a light flashed from the locker’s entirety.
At the same time, the softly felt flow of mana disappeared.
It was the erasure of the magic array.
Kallum tightly bit his lower lips, and opened the locker’s lid.
The letters that had tied him were seen.
“Kuuk!”
Forcefully swallowing back the curses that reached his throat, Kallum ripped apart the letters.
It was the instant the shackles that had bound him disappeared.
“Huu. Huu. Huu.”
Rough breaths poured out like breathes in winter.
Kallum placed the key in his hand on top of the desk.
“Is there anyone outside!”
Frost like pressure extended out.
Soon, the reception room’s door opened and one escort knight showed himself.
“Was there no one who entered this place?”
At the question that asked, the knight lowered hish head.
“Yes. There was no one, your highness.”
“There was no one?”
“Yes. There was no one. After Prince’s order last winter, not even the maids and servants who cleans had entered. Many knights, including me, have been guarding without a single crack for water to leak.”
His voice was full of certainty.
Kallum looked at the knight and exhaled a short sight.
“Without a single crack for water to leak, is it……”
It was speechlessly absurd.
Kallum couldn’t hold himself back and slammed the desk.
Boom!
A deafening boom rang out.
‘Roan!’
Rage boiled up.
‘From now on is truly the start.’
A cold light hung on his eyes.
‘I will definitely twist apart your four limbs!’
It was a declaration of war that was said alone.
< Enter the War (165) > End.