The Military Camp was half-festive.
Here and there, people were drinking cheap alcohol and singing merrily, or even dancing.
They were all surviving mercenaries or soldiers. The knights allowed them to indulge in their victory.
“The wine is all gone!”
“Bring more, quickly!”
No, they were actually encouraging the drinking party.
They were killing people so readily when the sun was shining, but as soon as night fell, alcohol and food were going into their mouths – it was something you couldn’t understand even if you saw it twice.
However, Keldric didn’t carelessly criticize it. The war situation, which had seemed difficult, had been reversed, so he figured their joy must be immense.
Keldric watched the soldiers laughing and talking. Among them were some familiar faces, like those from the Wild Goat Mercenary Corps.
They had all survived. Perhaps the reason the alcohol was going down so easily was because of that relief.
“Lord Keldric! Have a drink! I’d like to toast to Lord Keldric’s glorious achievements!”
“Thank you. You were excellent as well.”
In other words, Keldric couldn’t help but feel uplifted as well.
Lord Henri approached with a glass overflowing with wine. Keldric accepted the glass and, with a smiling face, put it to his lips and tilted it.
The sour and bitter wine filled Keldric’s mouth. Keldric’s lips twitched. Seeing this, Lord Henri nudged Keldric’s shoulder and said,
“Lord Keldric. Everyone has decided to gather at Lord Rutger’s tent, would you like to join us?”
“I…”
Keldric looked at the back of Lord Henri, or rather, at the slightly stiff tent beyond him. Lord Henri followed his gaze.
“I’m sorry. I have something else to do.”
“Ah… Is it Lord Gerhard?”
Lord Gerhard. It was the tent where he was staying.
As the knight he had personally captured, Keldric had the right to receive Lord Gerhard’s ransom.
However, the circumstances of the capture were just that he was found by soldiers in a roughly organized battlefield, and for Keldric, it was really just a stroke of luck that came along when he saved Lord Rutger.
Still, it doesn’t change the fact that Keldric defeated him.
And Keldric hadn’t exchanged a single word with him yet.
“Are you going to negotiate the ransom?”
“Well… something like that.”
“In that case, Lord Keldric, I’ll tell you a very good method.”
“…What is it?”
Keldric sipped the wine with a reluctant expression.
The fact that Lord Henri was going to tell him something didn’t inspire much confidence.
“When receiving a ransom, you shouldn’t just receive money. If the family is impoverished, they often can’t pay the ransom properly.”
“If it’s a knight family without a fief, that’s certainly true.”
“The Olenmeier family has a fief.”
The Emperor had directly bestowed the hereditary knight title upon the Olenmeier family.
The fief that followed was Count Lassau’s territory, and Count Lassau had separated it and given it to them.
“But they’re a new family. There’s no way they have money.”
“What should I do?”
“Take everything you can get. Their family wouldn’t want to abandon a knight like Lord Gerhard, either.”
Indeed, Keldric slowly nodded. Lord Henri’s words were convincing in many ways.
When Keldric faced Lord Gerhard, he had felt threatened, which was rare.
He could still faintly feel the sensation of blood rushing and entering a state of extreme excitement and tension at that moment.
If Keldric felt this way, the Olenmeier family, which had just established itself as a new family, couldn’t abandon Lord Gerhard.
Even if it wasn’t Lord Gerhard, it would be the duty of the family to roll up their sleeves and pay the ransom for a knight…
“Well, don’t worry too much. If Lord Gerhard has honor and knows chivalry, he will pay the price for his freedom.”
Keldric nodded silently.
However, he couldn’t just sit still and wait for the money to roll in.
In order to get money, you have to lift your heavy ass.
“I’ll be going now.”
“I hope you have good results.”
“Thank you.”
And that also meant that Keldric couldn’t avoid talking to Lord Gerhard.
☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩
“You were really like a monster.”
That was the first thing Keldric heard as soon as he entered the tent.
Keldric’s expression immediately became reluctant. Regardless, Lord Gerhard, who was sitting quietly inside the tent, quietly sipped his wine.
He was only a prisoner in name; judging by how he was being treated, he was closer to an accompanying knight.
And this was the custom. When capturing a knight, their honor and fighting spirit were respected, and even though they were prisoners, the perspective of people at this time was to treat them as well as possible.
“May I sit?”
However, apart from that, Keldric treated Lord Gerhard politely.
Thanks to this, Lord Gerhard’s expression became slightly bewildered.
No matter how much knights respected the honor of other knights, there was a limit.
Honor was honor, but there were so many hot-tempered and narrow-minded knights that it was difficult to have a normal conversation with someone they had beaten and been beaten by.
The same was true in this case.
No matter how customary it was to treat a captured knight well, it was rare to treat someone you had been fighting fiercely with just a few hours ago as if nothing had happened.
Keldric, who didn’t bat an eye and treated him like that, was, to put it nicely, clear about the distinction between public and private matters, and to put it badly, shameless.
However, Lord Gerhard didn’t seem to dislike Keldric’s attitude.
His eyebrows, which had been stiffly raised with doubt, relaxed slightly.
As for Keldric, he was just trying to be polite since he was entering someone else’s tent.
“Oh, uh… sure.”
“Then, excuse me for a moment.”
Keldric sat opposite Lord Gerhard, and another glass of wine was added to the simple table.
After that, there was silence for a while.
Lord Gerhard quietly sipped his share of the wine, and Keldric chewed on the tough jerky he had brought as a snack.
As it became awkward with no words exchanged, Lord Gerhard was the one who spoke first with difficulty.
“…First of all, congratulations on the victory.”
“Thank you. Although you were defeated, you still fought honorably.”
“Thank you for saying that.”
And then, more silence.
Neither of them was shy. It was just that Lord Gerhard, a knight from a new family, and Keldric, who had little experience, had met.
It would be awkward to just sit and drink and then leave. Keldric moistened his throat with wine and belatedly continued.
“Lord Gerhard, I would like to discuss your ransom.”
“Ah, yes. My ransom.”
Lord Gerhard nodded as if he understood. The sour smell of alcohol scattered with the nod.
“I’ll be direct, Lord Keldric.”
“I’m listening.”
“Our family doesn’t have the extra energy to pay my ransom.”
After that, it was as Lord Henri had said.
The Olenmeier family was a new family. Count Lassau had granted them a fief, but in reality, they hadn’t even properly collected taxes once yet.
Therefore, all the members of the family were traveling around to increase their wealth, and Baron Gottfried had lent money to the Olenmeier family.
That was why Lord Gerhard had fought under Baron Gottfried. Keldric listened to his story in silence.
“So, our family won’t be able to pay your ransom.”
“…Why are you telling me this?”
Keldric was puzzled. Everything Lord Gerhard was saying was of no help to Lord Gerhard.
I captured you. Congratulations. But I don’t have a penny to my name. What are you going to do now?
If it were another knight with a bad temper, he could have immediately said something unpleasant.
Lord Gerhard’s answer to that was simple.
“If I lied about the ransom, my honor would be tarnished.”
Honor. In the end, that was what was holding him back.
Keldric roughly understood. It wasn’t unusual for knights to value honor more than their lives.
If, by any chance, Lord Gerhard escaped under the pretext of bringing the ransom and then ran away, it was clear that no nobleman
in this empire would want a knight from the Olenmeier family.
That’s what honor was like. It was practically the knight’s own livelihood.
“You are honorable.”
“What, it’s a matter of course.”
Thanks to this, Keldric raised his evaluation of Lord Gerhard by one level.
From a knight who was good at fighting, to a knight who at least knew how to maintain commercial ethics.
“Then, how do you intend to pay the ransom?”
However, that was that, and the ransom was the ransom.
Keldric had no intention of glossing over it. It wasn’t that he was short of money, but it was right to receive what he was owed.
At Keldric’s stingy attitude, Lord Gerhard clicked his tongue and said,
“Lord Keldric. Do you have any dependents to take care of?”
“I have dependents, but I have no obligation to take care of them.”
“That means you are living in an already stable settlement.”
Is that how the conversation is going? Keldric reluctantly understood.
“That’s… you could say that. But what does that have to do with your ransom?”
“Lord Keldric. I have people to take care of.”
Lord Gerhard’s attitude became quite serious. A bit of desperation dwelled in his calmly sunken eyes.
“My family… especially my family, can’t handle any more burden. The debt we have to repay to Lord Gottfried is also considerable.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Lord Keldric. I want to pay my ransom in a slightly different way.”
“….”
Keldric put down his wine glass and gestured with his hand. He was in the mood to hear him out.
“First of all, if I pay the ransom and am released, I will not plunder the territory of Duke Yaben.”
“That sounds like a matter of course.”
“That may be. But what I mean is, even if Lord Gottfried orders me to plunder, I will follow my honor.”
Keldric nodded calmly.
It seemed like he was just repeating obvious things, but it was better to listen to the story until the end.
“That’s all good, but what are you going to use to replace the ransom?”
“My trust and honor.”
‘Is this a scam?’
Keldric couldn’t help but think that.
It seemed to be flowing similarly to a scammer’s method, so he became wary for no reason.
“To be more precise… yes. If I meet you on the battlefield again in the future, then just once, I will give you a break.”
“Oh…”
In reality, he was saying that he would retreat without fighting.
It didn’t look good for the side that had been defeated and become a loser to say that.
However, the opportunity to pass by favorably without fighting once was valuable. Keldric was slightly tempted.
“I swear on my honor. Also, I will definitely repay the unpaid monetary ransom later.”
“Are you asking to postpone the ransom payment deadline?”
“Exactly.”
Keldric pondered for a moment.
In fact, there was nothing to ponder about, and there would be no problem even if he just told him to fuck off and grabbed him by the collar and told him to pay up.
However, Keldric was pondering about the character of Lord Gerhard.
Embracing people is a good thing. But is it so important that it’s worth taking a financial loss?
“Please…”
He met Lord Gerhard’s eyes. The desperation in those eyes became a little deeper.
There was no shadow of lies to be seen at all.
“…Then, can you pay extra for the delayed ransom?”
“That’s…”
Lord Gerhard pondered. Keldric waited.
As the wine in the glass sparkled in the torchlight, and the singing from outside began to die down.
“I will try. But I promise I won’t give up. I swear on my honor.”
Whether he paid the ransom in installments or with interest, he would repay it without fail.
This would remain a debt. If he wrote something akin to a promissory note, there would be no backing out.
Even if Lord Gerhard unilaterally refused to pay the ransom, it would be a critical blow to the prestige of the Oltenmeier Family, which had only just begun to rise.
Besides, perhaps he could raise a legitimate objection to Count Lassau with that.
If he really intended to pay the ransom, Keldric had nothing to lose.
“Very well.”
Keldric nodded readily.
He didn’t prefer doing things at a loss, but he didn’t consider this a loss.
“Lord Keldric… Thank you so much!”
Lord Gerhard beamed. A sense of relief, as if a great weight had been lifted, was evident on his face.
Keldric glimpsed the anguish of ‘one who bears responsibility’ in that face.
Someday, Keldric would also have to take responsibility for something.
Right now, he was only borrowing the family’s reputation, but the reputation and the accompanying sense of responsibility that were much greater than that would be immeasurably heavy.
‘Responsibility, huh….’
Sipping his wine, Keldric repeatedly mulled over that difficult yet simple word.
☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩
The dusky sky turned bluish.
Keldric inhaled the cold morning air and stepped outside the Military Camp.
He wasn’t just trying to catch his breath, but to send off Lord Gerhard, for whom he had promised a ransom.
Some soldiers watched with puzzled expressions.
To send back a knight they had captured with such effort—they wondered when he had received the ransom.
“Lord Keldric. I will keep my promise without fail.”
“I trust in your honor.”
Regardless, Keldric blankly watched Lord Gerhard’s retreating figure as he slowly began to ride away.
The field was all white with snow, but the battlefield where they had fought fiercely until the day before was scarred with patches of upturned earth.
Lord Gerhard rode his horse toward it. Beyond that, to the west.
If he went that way, he would reach Baron Gottfried’s territory, and then Count Lassau’s territory.
There was a ‘home’ there that Lord Gerhard had to take responsibility for.
“Lord Keldric! Did Lord Gerhard already pay the ransom?!”
Lord Henri rushed over, making a fuss. Keldric shrugged nonchalantly.
“We agreed to receive it later. With a little extra money on top.”
“Good heavens… How can you trust a knight from a newly established family! That fellow probably doesn’t even know what honor is!”
Keldric turned his gaze slightly north. The mountain range, obscured by pure white mist and clouds, was there.
“If one does not avoid taking responsibility, that would be an honorable thing.”
“Well, that’s…”
If one went straight along where that mountain range was, they would reach Carlton Village, where Keldric’s eighteen years of life were deeply rooted.
The only place ruled by the Bellaf Family, where there were people he could call family.
“Perhaps, I too may have been subtly avoiding responsibility.”
Keldric recalled that place after a long time.
And he also remembered an old servant who, though there was no obligation, had taken responsibility for Keldric’s childhood.