Masid grabbed his head urgently.
“Ugh.”
Perhaps because he had been the closest when the mine exploded, it seemed some aftereffects still remained.
His nerves grew even more sensitive.
When the ringing finally subsided and Masid lifted his head again, a knight from the East, who had come after roughly tidying up the nearly finished mine-explosion matter, approached.
“This side is finished. Thank you for your hard work.”
Since he couldn’t let them see him arguing, Masid smiled as if nothing had happened and replied,
“Ah, yes. Of course. It would have been even better if you’d arrived a little earlier, though.”
“Indeed. We didn’t expect things to turn out like this either. Anyway — was there a knight near the mine?”
“…Yes, and what about it?”
Masid frowned slightly as he asked back.
Why would he even ask something like that?
A normal response would have been something formal like, Thank you, we’ll repay the favor next time, to leave the promise of future cooperation and build rapport.
But with an unpleasantly sharp intuition, the eastern knight shamelessly continued,
“It was one of the spots where the risk of magic-stone explosions was usually low. Yet it seems the explosion occurred because someone with mana was nearby.”
“And so?”
“If someone was using a sword aura in the vicinity, then we can’t say the northern side is entirely free of blame, can we?”
Saying this with a smiling face, the expressions of the entire Keilos team instantly went cold.
***
She knew it.
Even if she told Masid to step back, there was no way he would.
Liselotte wanted to let out a laugh right then, but because she was in front of Eren, she forced herself to maintain her expression.
Eren had just finished organizing Ferento’s disordered, anger-soaked report in his head and explaining it to Liselotte.
The air in the office was heavy.
Even in this situation, Eren remained calm.
“…So, first of all, I intend to meet with Duke Gloria.”
Sitting on the sofa, Liselotte leisurely sipped her tea and asked,
“What is Sir Masid doing right now?”
“He collapsed at the physician’s place, saying his ears hurt.”
Well then. Should she say it was fortunate he at least got injured enough to come back quietly?
Liselotte answered coolly,
“Let’s call a priest. No — the High Priest. He should have the most expensive treatment, right?”
At her words, Ferento, who was standing in front of the desk, dropped his jaw wide open.
While he turned only his head and stared at Liselotte, his mouth opening and closing soundlessly, Eren answered first.
“What’s so precious about him that you’d spend that kind of high-cost treatment?”
Coming from someone usually quiet and mild-tempered, it sounded like the harshest insult he was capable of.
Only then did Ferento nod vigorously, agreeing wholeheartedly.
Liselotte intended to use every resource available.
“He’s a knight commander, so he has rank. That means we can claim a large amount in compensation. We should charge something extra as well.”
“Compensation?”
Eren repeated it as if hearing the term for the first time.
So he planned to only defend himself against the unreasonable accusations from the East?
If they did that, the person collapsing the next day might be her.
Realizing she hadn’t explained enough, Liselotte added belatedly,
“We were trying to carry out damage recovery, not deal with the magic stone mine itself.”
Since the matters were separate, she intended to make demands on their side as well.
In her previous life, this was commonly called a counter-claim.
Eren leaned back deeply into his chair, looking as if he were thinking it over.
“If we take the same stance, we’ll have to be prepared for future friction with the East.”
She knew exactly what he was concerned about.
That was the nature of the relationship between border regions.
They couldn’t pick up a territory and move it somewhere else, and whether they liked it or not, their Houses would continue to clash for generations to come.
In the long run, resolving things smoothly was more advantageous.
Liselotte spoke firmly.
“If it was a good relationship, then normally they wouldn’t have dragged the issue this far. The ones who picked a fight first were the East.”
Instead of thanking them, they were blaming the North.
She felt an overwhelming urge to storm into the East right this instant.
Liselotte pulled a sheet of paper on the table toward herself.
Picking up the pen that had already been prepared, she said confidently,
“Don’t worry. I’ve already calculated the knights’ and subjugation members’ labor costs very generously.”
Liselotte began writing neatly, pressing down each character one by one.
She had tried to convey things gently until now, but they consistently acted like they didn’t understand.
Whether they were doing it on purpose or not, this time she would write it so clearly they could not avoid it.
[Greetings,
This is Liselotte Keilos.
I am writing regarding the cancellation of the cooperative agreement for the recent subjugation damage recovery.
After the explosion at the magic stone mine, we were forced to carry out the subjugation entirely on our own.
Afterward, the East unilaterally shifted the responsibility for the mine explosion onto us.
In addition, the person in charge of this matter on your side continually changed, making cooperation extremely difficult.
Finally, instead of an aide, the Young Lady of House Gloria herself handled all affairs and even pushed the task of identifying eastern subjugation personnel onto the North.
For these reasons, we have determined that it is no longer possible to continue cooperation.
Furthermore, over the past several days, while conducting damage recovery, the North has also been handling responsibilities belonging to the East, creating a significant burden.
Therefore, please be informed that all negotiations regarding subjugation damage recovery are considered canceled as of this moment.]
‘They should understand if I put it this clearly.’
For now, cancellation came first.
Since the details of the recovery work had been discussed verbally, in truth she didn’t even need to send a letter.
What mattered was the content.
That she listed their faults one by one and left them in writing.
‘Stabbing at them with something as simple as “you did wrong, so pay up!” would be too one-dimensional.’
And the most important part was the reply she would receive here.
The Mirkena aide she had seen till now was incompetent.
So even if this kind of letter arrived, there was no way a proper response would come back.
‘Let’s see what sort of reply they send.’
Liselotte sent the letter off with the hawk, as she had done so many times before.
Unlike the usual immediate reply, this time—perhaps out of shock—there was no response even by the afternoon.
***
“So things fell apart with the East because of Sir Masid?”
“What do we do?”
“They say His Highness the Grand Duke and Princess Liselotte are both working hard on the matter right now…”
Whispering voices were heard from beyond the door.
The priest placed a gentle hand on Masid’s face with a warm smile.
Soon, a bright light enveloped Masid’s face with a comforting warmth.
“For the time being, please stay somewhere quiet.”
As the priest’s voice echoed softly, Masid frowned.
He couldn’t tell whether it was because of the whispering voices outside or simply because of the ringing in his ears.
‘Why isn’t my condition improving even after treatment?’
Masid looked the priest up and down with displeasure.
The High Priest was someone who could not be summoned whenever one wished.
Because his schedule could not be adjusted on short notice, a senior (high-ranked) priest was treating Masid in his stead.
Finishing the treatment, the priest rose with a benevolent smile.
“Then, I will be on my way now.”
“Is this really treated properly?”
Masid sat up from the small cot, frowning.
His ears were still ringing.
The priest answered in a tone that suggested he was used to such questions.
“For now, we must observe your recovery. I will visit again tomorrow at the same time. Until then, please avoid loud noises and rest somewhere quiet.”
With that, the priest offered the simple formal bow of a cleric and departed.
The room fell silent.
Masid ground his teeth as he pieced together the situation from the servants’ earlier conversation.
“How dare they look down on the North this much. What? The magic stone explosion was the North’s fault?”
Ha. Unbelievable. He was so stunned he couldn’t even speak.
This was all because that half-wit was the one leading House Keilos now.
When the former Grand Duke had been alive, not once had such a thing ever happened.
Masid stood up.
He was far too angry to remain shut in the room any longer.
More importantly, he felt he needed to see for himself what the other subjugation members were saying about him.
‘Ignorant fools with loose tongues.’
How dare they utter insults about a noble — no, about their direct superior?
Thud, thud.
He stomped into the corridor with heavy steps.
Familiar faces shrank back uncomfortably when they saw him.
“What?!”
When he shouted, attendants and knights alike lowered their heads in discomfort, pretending not to see him.
