Chapter 92
Ael’s smile was broad enough to reveal a neat row of white teeth. Blaine, however, looked thoroughly displeased.
Which was hardly surprising. From Blaine’s perspective, Ael was little different from a bandit who had appeared out of nowhere and stolen his home.
Except that “home” happened to be an entire country.
“Does it look like I’m doing well? How on earth did you get in here?”
No matter how curtly Blaine spoke, Ael remained completely unfazed. Not that Ael particularly appreciated Blaine’s openly hostile attitude, either.
“I walked.”
Still smiling as casually as ever, Ael answered with a single word. Blaine immediately raised his voice.
“It seems your powers of comprehension really are lacking. Is that what I asked? This is my bedchamber. The private bedchamber of the King of Altnebra! It’s protected by an immensely powerful ward woven from ancient magic. Even the Empire’s finest court mages have never been able to identify its true nature, and—”
As Blaine launched into an increasingly lengthy explanation, Ael frowned. They really were incompatible on a fundamental level.
…Then again, he’d probably get along well enough with Maeve. Kiara, too, for that matter.
Looking thoroughly bored, Ael stretched leisurely, letting out a broad yawn. Only then did Blaine’s voice falter.
“A-Anyway… the point is that not just anyone can enter this room…”
“Not just anyone?”
Ael tilted his head. The expression on his face seemed to ask, Who exactly are you calling ‘just anyone’? At last, Blaine snapped.
“I don’t care whether you’re from the Golden Lion Knights or the Red Lion Knights—no one can simply stroll into this room! Strictly speaking, only members of the royal family are allowed inside. And the late king was far too cautious a man to have secretly fathered… someone this enormous… this terrifying… without my knowledge.”
Looking Ael up and down with utter disbelief, Blaine made no effort to hide his skepticism.
Ael let out a quiet snort.
“Well, that’s a relief. I wouldn’t want someone like you as an older brother either. More importantly… only the royal family can enter?”
“I told you that’s how it works! More precisely, even royalty from another house can’t get in. You have to be Altnebran royalty by birth. Someone with Grandilgale blood flowing through their veins…Ah.”
“That’s right. Grandilgale.”
Ael smiled in satisfaction at the speechless Blaine.
Damn it. How did I forget that?
Ael was, beyond any doubt, a prince of the imperial family. A true imperial prince, with Grandilgale blood running thick through his veins.
…Of course he could enter.
‘This had been the first Emperor of Grandilgale’s royal palace to begin with.’
Feeling like a complete fool, Blaine let out a long, weary sigh. Meanwhile, Ael rose from the chaise where he’d been sitting. Startled, Blaine flinched before stammering,
“W-What is it? Why are you here?”
“Relax. Aren’t you my older brother? I came to ask my dear brother for a favor.”
Despite having just declared moments ago that he wanted nothing to do with an older brother like Blaine, Ael smiled as though he hadn’t contradicted himself in the slightest. He slowly rolled his stiff neck from side to side.
It was nothing more than a simple stretch. A lazy-looking warm-up, at first glance. Yet every movement flowed into the next with effortless precision, so smooth and natural that Blaine found himself staring without realizing it.
‘…Is this what a leopard looks like?’
He’d never actually seen one in person. He’d only read about them in books.
But watching Ael move, even burdened by that massive frame and heavy gear, without making so much as the faintest sound… It was exactly the way those books had described a leopard.
‘No wonder the guards never noticed him climbing over the castle walls.’
Blaine let out a hollow laugh.
He’d never expected to imitate the legend of the First Emperor and somehow escape the wrath of the imperial family.
While preparing for the wedding, he’d made his own preparations for war as well. His spies in the capital had reported that the Golden Lion Knights, the Emperor’s own order, had begun to mobilize. In response, he’d tightened security, reinforced the defenses, and reorganized his forces.
The only problem was that one tiny detail had been wrong.
Hearing Blaine’s quiet chuckle, Ael paused mid-stretch and looked over at him.
“And what’s so funny?”
Perhaps it was the way Ael was dressed, clad entirely in black. Once again, the image of a sleek, dark-blue predator crossed Blaine’s mind.
“…Just one question.”
“What?”
Resuming his stretches, Ael extended one arm before pulling it across his chest.
As Blaine’s gaze lingered on his broad, angular shoulders, he carefully chose his words.
“When people think of an order of knights… they usually picture cavalry, don’t they?”
“They do.”
“And the Golden Lion Knights… with their, well… golden saddles…”
“Ah. The white horses? That’s tradition.”
“R-Right… but when you first came over the castle wall…”
Unable to finish the question, Blaine only stammered. Ael, who had been answering him with bored indifference until now, leaned back and let out a short laugh.
“…That’s true. You certainly looked like you’d prepared for a battle, just not the one you were expecting. You thought an order of knights would appear astride white horses, trumpets blaring? My apologies. If they had, your wedding would’ve been absolutely perfect.”
‘At the sound of the trumpets, lions mounted upon white steeds would surge forth like a great tide before kneeling at his feet.’
Borrowing a line straight from the legend of the First Emperor of Grandilgale, Ael jabbed at Blaine with a mocking smile.
“You really are obsessed with legends. When I looked around afterward, I realized you’d even prepared every last detail. The wedding hall, for instance. Twenty white ribbons—”
“S-Stop! That’s enough! And don’t you think that was unbelievably cowardly? You’re the commander of an order of knights! Sneaking over the castle wall by yourself like some common thief?”
His face burning crimson, Blaine hurriedly cut him off.
It wasn’t as though Blaine had intended to recreate the legend word for word. Still, they were an order of knights. Not just any order, but the famed Golden Lion Knights who had inherited the First Emperor’s legacy. He’d expected them to charge in openly shouting their battle cries. As what was honorable.
Instead, they could scarcely have been any quieter. In fact, they hadn’t really charged at all. Their commander, Ael, had simply climbed over the castle wall alone and opened the gates from the inside.
Discussion
0 CommentsNo comments yet.