REFDL 46

“Isn’t the Kremlis going?”

Someone mentioned the very name Nitan had been thinking of.

“……Probably not.”

His Majesty seems eager to send him more than anyone, but the nobles will oppose it. They’ll emphasize that the Kremlis was an underdeveloped adult. They’ll insist he must be protected until he’s fully grown.

…From Tortan’s position, having to placate the nobles first, it would be difficult to insist strongly either.

It made Nitan tremble to think anew just how immense the stress of the emperor’s position must be.

Even if the world turned upside down, it wouldn’t happen. Nitan shuddered after imagining it.

‘Anyway.’

If it came to that, the only thing left to rely on would be numbers.

The nobles knew it too. They knew resolving the situation in the North requires more support than five years ago.

They just wanted to give a little ‘less’. That’s why, even in this urgent situation, they shouted their opposition first, forcing a negotiation table.

The knights who must fight on the front lines were sick of it.

The dragon knights and the regular knights, who were neither particularly friendly nor hostile—if anything, they regarded each other like cats and dogs—shared a cigarette.

“The bastards who opposed it should be given a spear and made to stand at the very front of the subjugation force.”

“That’s exactly what I mean.”

It had come to this.

And there was someone like that here too.

“Haha. I wish they’d all just die.”

“……You.”

“Huh? I didn’t say who I meant.”

The knight grinned as he clasped his hands behind his head.

“But Vice Captain thinks the same, right?”

“…….”

Nitan didn’t answer.

That was when it happened.

“Vice Captain!!”

A gut feeling grabbed the back of his head, and Nitan shuddered. Maybe this was what the captain always felt.

Nitan closed his eyes then opened them, he silently pleaded.

Don’t say it.

“The, the Kremlis dragon has vanished!”

“…….”

The faces of all the knights present turned ashen. Though Nitan was more shocked than anyone, he recovered quickly.

That dimwit… That gentle dragon is gone?

His first suspicion was kidnapping. If someone had offered him high-grade jerky, he might have followed them…

‘No.’

No matter how dumb… innocent he was, he wasn’t that gullible. Nitan vividly remembered the majesty he displayed in the Forest Village.

His usual behavior was like a puppy sticking out his tongue and smiling brightly. But his essence was that of a dragon.

In fact, he was extremely clever.

‘He can even hold conversations.’

He was almost as smart as a human.

Nitan’s mind began racing.

Images of the children and the dragon, which had seemed suspicious, surfaced in his mind.

“……!!”

‘Wait, this can’t be.’

He also recalled that many of the academy teachers had connections to the knight order.

Of course they did.

Most knights went to the academy as teachers after retirement!

‘If…’

If one of the academy teachers had heard something from the knights and somehow let the current situation slip to the children.

And if the children, startled by that, had passed it on to even the unusually clever and soft-hearted Kremlis.

……It wouldn’t be strange at all if that kid, who strangely both feared and liked Kaelus, flew north claiming he was going to save him!

‘No. Wait. Even so, how could he possibly reach Anax alone?’

He wouldn’t know the location.

He wouldn’t know the way there.

Nitan felt a momentary pang of worry, but he decided he could still use the situation to his advantage.

‘Well, he’s smart. He’ll figure something out.’

For a moment, he couldn’t help but wonder if the Kremlis had fled from the tiresome human world, because Kaelus sometimes looked at him with a threatening gaze.

‘No. That can’t be it.’

The Forest Village kids were attending the academy. It seemed he really had gone north to save Kaelus.

Having reached his conclusion, Nitan quickly set his priorities in his mind.

“I must see His Majesty immediately.”

“……Safe travels!”

“Don’t worry about this place.”

“We’ll have everything ready!!”

“…….”

The knights, whose intuition was second only to Kaelus’, saluted in unison.

Nitan, who had been about to say something but stopped himself, headed toward the imperial palace.

It felt similar to when he went to retrieve an order bearing the emperor’s seal.

Filled with conviction and self-assurance.

His steps were light.

* * *

At that very moment.

The emperor was still raising his voice in a meeting, well into the evening, over the matter of ‘reinforcing the subjugation force’s troops and increasing supplies’.

His throat was sore from talking so much.

His throat felt like it would tear.

‘No. It already feels torn…’

He too wanted to speak softly.

But if the nobles didn’t even listen when he raised his voice, would they pretend to listen at all if he spoke gently?

“……”

He smiled.

‘I want to kill them all…’

For Firmus.

For an era of peace.

His temper, desperately suppressed, began to rear its head, fueled by exhaustion and stress.

Tortan endured.

If he couldn’t endure, it would be civil war.

‘Then fuck it, I have to endure…’.

It would mean flushing five years of effort down the drain, and the empire would plunge back into chaos.

‘I absolutely cannot let that happen.’

“Are you threatening us to hand over our private soldiers?!”

“Even His Majesty has no right to demand such a thing!”

“And additional funds on top of that?! If this isn’t extortion, what is?!”

“How can the great emperor commit such an act, no different from robbery?!”

“You say the situation in the North is suspicious, but do you have any evidence to back that up? Or are you just picking on us because you dislike what we do, trying to break our spirit?”

…Upon further reflection, it seemed possible he might see that very outcome.

‘No. What am I thinking?”

Tortan came back to his senses and steeled his resolve.

Ultimately, the nobles wanted one thing: to use as little of their privately owned troops and funds as possible.

But that was impossible. Funds could be scraped together from the imperial budget, but trained knights weren’t something you could conjure overnight.

The nobles knew that too. That’s why they absolutely refused to part with their knights, arguably their greatest asset.

Tortan felt despondent. He had already sensed it. No matter what carrots or sticks he wielded.

The outcome of the meeting would be much the same.

The nobles had no intention of giving up more than they had decided, and as time passed, the disadvantage lay with him.

‘Damn it…’

They had never been on his side from the start.

Among them, there were likely scheming individuals who hoped this opportunity would lead to Kaelus’s death, turning Tortan into a true puppet.

‘No.’

Such bastards were probably not few.

As expected, since revealing the existence of the Kremlis dragon, several major nobles had been secretly approaching him behind the scenes.

But.

‘Their numbers were smaller than I thought.’

They pledged their full support this time. Since the start of the State Council meeting, they had remained silent, observing the situation quietly from the sidelines.

The problem was the ones shouting right in front of him.

…Because the Emperor now had a Kremlis dragon. Those who concluded that if only Kaelus were gone, they could manipulate both the emperor and the dragon to their own ends, like 1+1!

Tortan closed his eyes and then opened them.

The words “give up” or “surrender” did not exist in his vocabulary.

‘So this is how it ends.’

He had sent his precious knights through the Sea of Trees, making them suffer terribly, to find the Kremlis dragon precisely to avoid this.

Yes.

This is how it ended.

…This was bound to happen. Chasing ideals, stubbornly clinging to his own will, he had pushed Kaelus into a death trap. Sparks flew from Tortan’s eyes as he crossed the breaking point.

A forced conscription order was about to fall from his lips.

At that very moment.

The situation resolved itself in a direction the emperor could never have imagined.

Grrr!

Crash!!

“Ugh!”

“Aahhh!”

“……?!”

It defied all human understanding.

The arrival of a crimson, valiant disaster.

GRRRR!