Chapter 28 : Chapter 28
Chapter 28
Inside the silent conference hall.
“The Young Lord has arrived!”
Even at the attendant’s announcement of Ian’s arrival, not a single person rose from their seats.
At Ian’s appearance, already half a day late, Vergil glared and bit his lip, while Mogul merely stroked the blade of his axe.
Thud
Dozens of pairs of eyes poured onto the finally arrived Ian.
The gazes, filled with contempt, disgust, and annoyance, were so thick they felt like they were clinging to his feet.
“Well, it seems I’m late.”
But this was Ian, who had already lived in the Lord’s Castle for nearly a month.
All the attendants and maids had avoided his gaze, and not a single one had sent him a more favorable look than them.
Ian, who had lightly shaken off the malice sent by dozens of pairs of eyes, looked around and slowly opened his mouth.
“Sorry, sorry.
I’m a very busy person.”
At his nonchalant reaction, Vergil was about to flare up and step forward, but Ian opened his mouth a step faster.
“Since everyone is as busy as I am, let’s get this over with quickly.”
After finishing his words, Ian gestured behind him, and several attendants who had been waiting in advance brought several sacks of wheat into the conference hall and began to place them on the table.
“Young Lord, what in the world is this…”
The regent, who had shot up at the sudden outrage, tried to stop Ian, but Ian took a dagger from his pocket, cut open a sack of wheat, and poured it onto the table.
Slice.
Shhhhhhh.
The wheat, sand, and bran that poured out from the cut side of the wheat sack spilled over the conference room table and onto the floor.
“This is the reason I have summoned this council of lords.”
Thud!
Ian said, stabbing his dagger into the half-empty sack.
“The number of bastards who think the Moner Duchy has fallen just because my father is gone has increased.
My father was the pillar of the Moner family, but he was not all of it.
The Moner family is you.”
The eyes of those who were flustered by Ian’s sudden words wavered.
“Those who protect the Moner family.”
Ian, who had looked at Mogul and Vergil in turn, bowed his head slightly towards them.
“Those who defend the Moner family.”
Finally, Ian’s eyes turned towards the Head of the Auditor's Department.
“And the people of the domain, who are as good as all of the Moner family.”
As if the gritty taste of the sand-mixed bread he had eaten during his mission still lingered in his mouth, his voice sank low with that unpleasant grittiness.
“Those bastards dared to target my people.”
As Ian, who should have been subjected to insult and disgrace, was leading the meeting in a strange direction contrary to expectations, the flustered regent quickly intervened.
“That is correct.
The merchants are eating away at the flesh of the domain.”
Markberg, who had looked around, picked up the bran and sand that had fallen to the floor and rolled it between his fingers.
The soft wheat and the rough bran and sand mixed together, creating an unpleasant feeling that wouldn’t go away.
“Unless we wage a war, those bastards will not stop.
Food prices are rising every year, so no matter how much we tighten our belts, the situation of the domain is getting worse day by day.”
The roughness he felt at his fingertips seemed to be the source of the discomfort that had been tormenting him for days, and he shook his hands and looked around.
Whether they agreed with him or not, these were the people who had run the domain with him over the past years.
They knew the situation of the domain much better than the madman.
It wasn't as if the merchants had just started colluding yesterday, and hadn't they tried to find a solution several times already?
“This year has been particularly difficult.”
The regent, who had wiped his face with his hand as if he were truly in a difficult situation, continued.
“We’ve never had much leeway, but this year, the fifty million gold in private funds that the Young Lord took was particularly burdensome…”
At Markberg’s words, Vergil’s face contorted horribly.
The hot-tempered young knight was already trembling with his fists clenched as he spoke.
“…Private funds.
What do you mean by that?”
While the soldiers on the front lines were swallowing sand-mixed bread with blood and saliva, was the young lord, who was comfortably staying in the Lord’s Castle, taking private funds?
His voice even trembled from the overwhelming sense of shame.
“Well… it’s because the Young Lord boasted that he would get the food…”
Markberg, who had bowed his head as if he were ashamed, smiled secretly.
‘That’s it.
You’re finished now.’
It was a shame that Count Sven hadn’t come in person, but the still naive eldest son was easier to move than the composed count.
“Do you think fifty million gold in private funds makes sense!
Right now, on the front lines, even that sand-mixed bread is in short supply!”
Markberg, who had smiled inwardly at the young and hot-blooded knight who had reacted just as he had wanted, replied with a troubled face.
“Yes, yes, of course I know.
That’s why this quarter, I have specially used my own private funds to secure additional food.”
While Vergil’s eyes widened in surprise at those words, Mogul, who had been listening to their conversation in silence, turned his head to Ian and slowly opened his mouth.
“Well, Young Lord.”
As the 6-star knight, who had reached the threshold of the master level of defeating a legion with the power of a single person, opened his mouth, his presence filled the conference room.
“It’s been a very long time since I saw you as a child.
Since you haven’t formally inherited the title yet, forgive my rudeness in not showing you proper courtesy.”
In Mogul’s soft voice, the spirit of a warrior who had endured countless front lines could be felt.
At the voice of a knight who followed a straight conviction that would neither waver nor break, Ian replied bluntly.
“It would be meaningless to expect respect from a knight who does not show loyalty.”
“Hah… yes.
That’s right.”
Ian was someone to whom he should be demanding loyalty, and Mogul was in a position to offer it.
As a knight, Mogul had never forgotten that fact for a single moment.
That was why he had never moved despite the regent’s demands for so long.
‘But it’s not as if I offered loyalty to that child either.’
The person to whom he had dedicated his loyalty was the previous duke, who was now gone.
Not the infamous madman before him.
It might be a desire to remain an honorable knight, but at least for now, that was how it was.
“Well, you speak well.
If the people of the domain are everything, as you say, how would you like to solve this problem?”
Mogul lightly waved his hand, and the wheat sack on the table was torn to shreds, and a sandstorm swirled in his fierce mana.
“Speak.”
Ian smiled at Mogul, who was exuding his presence as if to threaten him.
“War.
We are aiming for war.”
* * *
Ian looked around the conference hall with cold eyes.
As always, there was no one on his side here.
He wanted to see Reina right now.
He wanted to relieve his tension by talking nonsense with Lina and Rick.
He wanted to train happily while watching Puck and the members laugh and chat.
The space without them was so hostile.
His skin tingled at the undisguised malice in Vergil’s eyes, and he could only feel concern and suspicion from Count Mogul’s mana.
Seeing him stroking his beloved axe even in a council of lords where weapons were not allowed, it was clear that the warrior, who was exuding a murderous aura, had come here to make a decision of his own.
So.
It was no different from his daily life.
Even the members of the Black Noble Order, with whom he spent the most time of his day, were still afraid of him.
This much malice and killing intent.
The suspicion that was riddled with infamy.
It was not new at all.
“War.
We are aiming for war.”
Silence fell in the conference hall at the unimaginable statement.
Mogul moved his lips as if to say something, but he couldn't easily open his mouth at Ian’s reckless and irresponsible statement.
War was something that was wagered with countless lives.
No matter how displeased they were with the Merchants’ Association, they had to think about how many lives would be lost through a war.
In addition, even if the Moner family were to win a war against the three domains, the royal family would not stand by and watch the Moner family’s territory expand.
It wasn't for nothing that Mogul had remained silent for years despite being the commander of the defense force.
He had been enduring it because there were times when even a war with a just cause and necessity could not be waged.
“Young Lord……”
As Mogul finally opened his mouth, Ian raised his hand and stopped him.
“Ah, right.
I should be clear.
‘I’ will be the one to wage war.
I’m not stupid enough to move knights who don’t respect me.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
At Markberg’s question, Ian looked around the hall and said.
“Just as you don’t trust me, I don’t trust you either.
You may be the great pillars of the Moner family, but in the end, aren’t you the ones who brought the Moner family to ruin?”
Ian’s eyes, looking at Vergil, grew cold.
“Those who say they live to protect the people of the domain and their comrades, but in the end, have protected no one.”
His low gaze slowly turned to Mogul, who was gripping his axe.
“Or the blind who say they live for the safety of the domain and its people, but have turned a blind eye to the people of the domain who are dying from the power of money, from power, and from the atrocities of the clerics.”
Finally, a faint disgust appeared in Ian’s eyes as he looked at the regent.
“Or the very person who said they live for the well-being of the domain and the Moner family, but in the end, has caused the domain and the Moner family to rot.”
He didn't know what kind of thoughts, what kind of feelings, they had lived with.
He had no intention of understanding, nor did he need to.
That was what it meant to reign.
It had to be shown through results.
No matter how great the abilities of the people before him, they were nothing more than losers who, despite having the overwhelming power of the Moner family, had failed to protect their family and their domain.
“…You’re spouting nonsense with that open mouth of yours.”
For a moment, an overwhelming pressure and killing intent poured out from Mogul, who had been listening.
“Hiiik!”
Even though most of the pressure was directed at Ian, those who couldn’t withstand it were gasping for breath, while Ian sneered, facing Mogul.
“It seems the count doesn’t even know the bare minimum of shame.”
“What did you say?”
“You should be ashamed!
Does the count not oversee the protection of the domain and the security forces!
When those pigs from outside came crawling in with wheat mixed with sand and bran, you should have punished every last one of them, and everyone who benefited from that money!”
A thick killing intent, which countered Mogul’s pressure, surged from Ian’s raised voice.
“Even if it meant wringing the regent’s neck, you should not have condoned the corruption of this domain!
How many lives have been lost because you maintained that precious neutrality!
How many people of the domain have suffered!”
He looked at Mogul with eyes that held as much disgust and hatred as the disgust and hatred that had been directed at Ian when he entered this room.
The fool who, despite having power, had not moved, following his code of chivalry.
The idiots who had not moved even at the suffering of their people and subordinates.
“Count, if you had known what the bare minimum of shame was, you should have stepped forward yourself when I suggested we wage war, no, before that.
You should have punished all those damn bastards with your own hands!”
“…Is it because you haven't learned?
You don’t know the weight of war.”
He, who had spent his youth on the battlefield, knew well the horrors of war.
The desperation of not being able to truly smile for even a single moment.
The weight of the precious lives of his comrades, who faded away helplessly at the hands of blind swords and arrows.
That was why he did not want war.
No, he feared war.
If he, who had already entered the ranks of a master, were to move, he might be able to count on a chance of victory even against the three domains.
But rather than shed unnecessary blood for that, he believed it was better to chew on some poor-quality bread.
“So, did you save as many lives as that weight?
Did the lives of the people of the domain become prosperous?
Did you protect the domain, the people of the domain, that my father ordered you to protect?”
Ian, who had pulled out the dagger embedded in the table, looked at Mogul with a pathetic expression and said as if he were giving a notice.
“I have no intention of letting their atrocities go on any longer.
I will stop their bullshit even if it means going to war, and I will make it clear that the Moner family cannot be disgraced, even if it means shedding blood throughout the entire kingdom.
What the sword of the Moner family, the shield of the Moner family, should have done, I will do it in their stead.”
Of course, he had a much more sophisticated method in mind than a simple war, but he didn't tell them.
He knew well that they wouldn't believe him even if he did.
Just as Ian was about to turn and leave, the regent, who couldn't let him go, shot up and stopped him.
“Young Lord, wait!”
Markberg bit his lip and hastily grabbed Ian, who was about to leave the conference hall.