Chapter 3 – Story 99: Legacy
<– Previous Chapter | ToC | Glossary | Next Chapter –>
The Hundred Flowers, led by Piarta, left Romania’s army and traveled to Darius’s territory. As someone adoring Darius as her mentor and teacher, Piarta already knew a lot about his territory, such as its location and features. Hence it didn’t take them long to find the village of Play.
That village was basically a gathering of five small houses. This made Piarta wonder whether the means to defeat the Divine Son of Destruction were truly hidden in this place, seeing how Darius’s fief also housed much bigger towns.
While harboring such a doubt, Piarta and her Hundred Flowers approached the village.
But, as soon as the villagers saw them approach, they stopped their farmwork, tossed away their tools, and fled into their houses as they had apparently heard rumors that Romania would invade this small village too.
“Halt. Demetria and I shall proceed from here. One of you is to accompany us as a guard.”
Piarta headed to the village with Demetria and a guard to not scare the villagers unnecessarily. Seeing only those three approaching on their horses, an elderly man, who seemed to be the village chief, and another man came out of the biggest house in the settlement to greet them.
“I do not know who you are and where you came from, but what sort of business do you have in a godforsaken place like this? We do not have anything here.”
Him adding that last sentence showed that they were wary of being pillaged.
“I heard that a person called Brautus lives in this place. Is he here?”
Once Piarta asked them from atop her horse, the elderly and the other man exchanged a look. Then the old man told the other to call Brautus.
The man went back into the house, just to come back with an old man in tow after some time.
Piarta furrowed her eyebrows slightly. The old man’s way of walking with his back straightened made her sense a sort of refinement from him which didn’t fit this rustic, smelly farm village.
“Are you Brautus?”
“That I am indeed.”
The eyes of Brautus, as he gave this answer, weren’t filled with fear, but vigilance. Looking at his bearing, it was obvious that he was anything but a normal villager. However, his movements didn’t resemble that of a warrior either. Rather than that, they reminded one of someone who had polished his etiquette.
“Please don’t be so wary. I didn’t come to blame you, nor did I come here to take this village,” Piarta emphasized, before asking, “I’d like you to answer me truthfully: do you have some sort of connection with General Darius?”
Brautus replied after hesitating for a bit, “My family has a tradition of having served Lord Darius’s Brutus family as butlers for many generations. Even I have been personally serving Lord Darius up until just recently.”
At this moment Brautus was prepared for his own death. Darius was Romania’s sworn enemy. It wouldn’t be strange for Brautus to be on the receiving end of Romania’s hate for just possessing a deep relation to Darius.
However, those fears of Brautus were quickly betrayed.
“I have come here to receive something that was left in your care by the mansion’s freeloader. I was told that you’d understand, if I said this to you.”
Brautus’s eyes flew wide open.
Mansion’s freeloader.
This was a description only Darius and him used. But, since he didn’t know why a Romanian princess would know about that, he was quite confused. For an instant, he suspected that she might have captured Darius and heard about this from him through torture, but that was unlikely. If this had been the case, she’d have normally told him to hand over what had been entrusted to him. Her deliberately mentioning a term, which only Darius and Brautus used, made him clearly feel the will of Darius behind this.
“Please follow me this way to see what Lord Darius has entrusted to me.”
Brautus led Piarta to a storehouse which had been erected next to his own house. Once he moved the big bar aside and opened its door, the shadow of something being densely crammed into the dark storehouse, where no light could enter through the closed window, could be faintly seen from the doorstep.
Brautus lit up the candlestick he brought with him.
“This is what I have been entrusted by Lord Darius.”
“Holy…!”
Piarta widened her eyes and Demetria was lost for words when confronted with what was hidden in the storehouse as soon as the darkness was broken by the candle light.
A huge amount of documents. Letters, scrolls, parchment that had been simply tied up, tools of unknown purpose, and many more items filled the storehouse.
However, all of them shared the trait of being about one single matter.
“Are those possibly…?”
Brautus nodded at Piarta’s question and answered, “Yes. These are the results of the investigation on the Divine Son of Destruction which Lord Darius had done during the last five years.”
Ever since his defeat at the gates of Bolnis, Darius had used his private funds to thoroughly investigate the Divine Son of Destruction through all possible means.
“Such an amount…”
It truly was a treasure trove. Piarta couldn’t help but admire Darius for having gathered this much during merely five years. It was proof of the tenacity owned by the man described as Holmea’s strongest general.
After muttering words of admiration, Piarta entered the storehouse while scanning the mountains of documents. And just when she tried to pass through two such mountains, her elbow bumped against one of the document piles.
In response, the book lying at the very top fell down in front of Piarta’s feet with a dull thud.
“This is…?”
You couldn’t tell whether it was coincidence or a whim of the gods, but that book had fallen down with its pages open, as if to show its content to Piarta.
Bringing the candle, which she had borrowed from Brautus, close to the book, her eyes widened lightly when she saw its content. The book described a certain item which Souma had brought to this world.
Darius had investigated it down to the last detail and even added a hand-drawn illustration. On top of that, he had commented that it would elevate military power rapidly, if introduced, but expected a hard resistance by many noble lords, which would make its popularization difficult.
Staring at the book as if her eyes were glued to its pages, Piarta’s hand trembled slightly.
“This…he had such a thing!?”
At that moment, something clicked inside Piarta’s head. Something began to move within her at an astounding rate, like the last cog of a huge machine. And in the end, it created a complete conceptual drawing in her mind.
Piarta unconsciously hugged the book, feeling a tingling bliss, as she looked up to the ceiling.
“You have my deepest gratitude, Your Excellency!”
◆◇◆◇◆
Piarta received the wagon, which had been used to bring the documents to this place, from Brautus and used it once more, but this time to take all the documents out. After making sure that the documents were firmly covered by a canopy, Piarta handed a bag full of gold coins, which Demetria had prepared for her, to Brautus.
“This is a tiny reward for your work. Please accept it.”
However, Brautus refused to do so.
“Your considerations are unnecessary. ――However, if you insist, then promise me to keep this village safe.”
“As you wish. Demetria! Write up a proclamation that anyone who dares to harm this village will be severely punished in my name.”
Demetria jotted down Piarta’s words on a suitable wooden board, before Piarta signed it in the end. If they used this board as a notice board, even Romania’s looters would likely think twice about making a move on the village.
After Piarta and her hundred Flowers vacated the village, Brautus stood in the storehouse all by himself. Darius’s legacy, which had been filling this place to the brim, was now completely gone. The storehouse, which used to feel so small, was now completely empty.
Inside the big space, Brautus quietly murmured, “Master, Your loyal servant Brautus has fulfilled his final duty.”
Before Darius had left the capital with King Warius to fight against Romania, Darius had turned all his family’s belongings into money and distributed it to the people who used to work in the mansion. Because of that, everyone guessed that Darius had resolved himself to die on that battlefield.
While many of them left the mansion in tears, only Brautus intended to stay at the mansion and wait for Darius’s return. For him, whose family head served the Brutus family for many generations, working for Darius meant everything, and he regarded the Brutus family’s mansion as last bastion.
He suspected that the Romanian army, which would flood into the capital as a mob, would likely march towards Darius’s mansion to plunder it. Brautus was resolved to fight in order to defend the mansion, even if his strength would be lacking, and welcome his end alongside the mansion.
However, Darius showed him the documents he had gathered about the Divine Son of Destruction, and said the following:
“These are the crystallization of my final selfishness. It’d be a waste to let them come to nothing. I’d like you to take care of these until someone shows up to inherit them.”
Brautus suspected that this had to be a means to let him escape the capital. But, that ruse became reality through what seemed to be an unexpected twist of fate.
After having safely delivered Darius’s legacy, felt a deep loss, as if a hole had been ripped open in his chest, and at the same time, he felt a sense of relief as if having a weight removed from his mind.
What he now recalled was Darius. General Darius was extolled as a great general on the battlefield, but inside his own mansion he was an incompetent man who couldn’t do anything. When Brautus told Darius that he was the mansion’s freeloader, Darius responded with a laugh, “I cannot deny that.”
Remembering Darius’s smile from that time beamed a smile on Brautus lips. Then he picked up a small cask, which he had brought here with him, and sprinkled the liquid inside it on the floor of the storehouse.
Once he emptied the cask, he picked up the candlestick.
“Seriously, Master was unable to handle his everyday’s life without me being around. Very likely he’s currently troubled as well.”
With a faint smile on his lips, Brautus dropped the burning candlestick on the ground.
“He is such a troublesome lord.”
Crimson flames devoured the storehouse with a roar.
◆◇◆◇◆
“Lady Piarta! Look at that!”
Once she looked back, she spotted smoke rising from the village they had just left. Piarta wondered whether a looting unit of Romania’s army had arrived at the village while passing them, but she immediately realized that this couldn’t be the case.
“Are we going back, Lady Piarta?”
Piarta shook her head at Demetria’s question.
“No. We’re going to join up with the main force as quickly as possible.”
The army led by my father should be arriving at Holmea’s capital any moment now. I can’t imagine that Holmea will meet them with a bloodless capitulation either. Very likely it should have turned into a siege battle with our forces surrounding the capital.
The capital Holmenia is a strong city, which Holmea took over from an old dynasty.No matter how big our army might be, it won’t be easy to take that place. And I can already smell that the Divine Son of Destruction will use the chaos to make his own move
I’ll finally be able to face the man whom my master recognized as his arch-enemy.
Excited by that prospect, Piarta put strength into the hand holding the reins.
“Let’s go, Hundred Flowers! We will join up with the main force!”
Following her order, the brave knights of the Hundred Flowers spurred on their horses. But, Piarta had completely misunderstood things.
After all, Souma had already made his move at this point in time.
<– Previous Chapter | ToC | Glossary | Next Chapter –>
Translation Notes: