Chapter 40

40

“Well, you see, it’s like this.”

Bin opened his mouth belatedly to try to smooth things over, then realized it was already too late and muttered as if grumbling.

“Honestly, that petty bastard is dragging us down even here.”

“Bin.”

“Hm?”

“You know why I came to the capital alone. Whoever else I couldn’t trust, I trusted you.”

At that, Bin looked away, as if asking why it had to be him he trusted, while the others stared at Leonard with eyes full of betrayal, as if asking why he hadn’t trusted them.

Of course, they turned their heads away with a yelp the moment Leonard’s gaze fell on them.

“I can roughly guess why you followed me all the way to the capital. You were sure the Second Prince would break his promise, weren’t you?”

“Of course.”

Heath punched Bin in the side the instant he nodded.

He had meant it to be gentle, but where could such brute strength go? Bin collapsed over the table clutching his side and groaned for a long while, then raised reddened eyes to Leonard.

“Not one person I’ve met who made a fuss about not writing a contract, and wasn’t illiterate to boot, has ever turned out not to be a swindler.”

“What a coincidence. Same here.”

“I’m not joking. We’d already finished talking it over among ourselves.”

“Talking what over? Were you planning to report the Second Prince for breaking the contract?”

“Are we crazy? However much he violated the First Emperor’s Seven Commandments, there’s no way the Empress would let a prince stand before a tribunal.”

However unjust it was, they had no intention of doing anything to the Second Prince.

It was only that.

“We were going to sell ‘that.'”

“That?”

“That.”

As Bin nodded, Leonard’s gaze shot to Michelle at high speed.

Michelle turned his head away even faster and began jabbing an innocent sausage with a fork for no reason.

At the sight, Leonard’s eyes twisted.

“Are you insane? What if you get caught?”

“We just won’t get caught.”

“How? Let’s hear it. How exactly were you planning to sell something as significant as a count’s family treasure without getting found out?”

His voice rose and quickened in his agitation.

To calm him, Michelle cut in with a short cough.

“We’ve got our own plan…”

“If you had a plan, you wouldn’t say that. That finger of yours was lost over nothing but a baseless false accusation.”

Michelle’s hand slid under the table as if fleeing. Seeing that, Leonard’s voice rose as though he were the one hurting.

“If it were only the finger, I wouldn’t say anything. You went to prison at an age one year younger than Jeni is now. What happens this time if hard proof turns up that you really did steal it? It’s death at the very least, death!”

“You think I don’t know that?”

Unable to listen any longer, Michelle finally shoved his chair back and stood up.

Heath reached out to hold her back, but Michelle roughly shook off his hand and glared at Leonard.

“I’ve been listening to this long enough. You think I decided this lightly? I’m the one who spent a full ten years in prison for something I didn’t do, not you! And I’m the one who’ll be executed for getting caught selling stolen goods, not you!”

“That’s why I told you not to come to the capital! If this was how it would be, why did you say you wouldn’t go to the capital even if the world turned upside down?”

“You think I wanted to come? Some idiot took a commission from the Second Prince without even writing a contract, and that’s why I followed!”

At that, Leonard shot to his feet as well.

“You think I wanted to make a deal with the Second Prince? How could I possibly defy the Second Prince’s word?”

“You shouldn’t have done anything to stand out in the first place! Right, now that you mention it, good thing it came up. You let our words about never going to Weinberg go in one ear and out the other, so why are you coming down on us like we’re rats now?”

Michelle, unable to contain her agitation, heaved rough breaths.

“You said it back then, didn’t you? That it was your business, so we shouldn’t worry. Same goes for this. It’s our business, so don’t worry about it.”

“How can I not worry? If anything happens to you because of me, how am I supposed to bear the sight?”

“That’s the same for all of us.”

It was Heath who cut in, in a calm voice. He glanced at Michelle, who had lost her moment because of him and was faltering, then turned his eyes to Leonard.

“Camila lost her arm saving you. That was her choice. Feeling guilty about it is also, yes, your choice.”

Precisely because he so rarely used it, Heath’s tongue was razor-sharp as he turned it on Leonard.

“But stop throwing your body around recklessly to ease that paltry guilt of yours. What you’re trying to do isn’t sacrifice. It’s just passing your guilt onto others.”

“I…”

“Ray. Are you worried about us, or.”

The look Heath gave Leonard was darker than usual.

As if he were hurt.

“Are you afraid that your guilt will grow heavier here?”

Whether he had seen that look or not.

Leonard’s head drooped sharply downward.

At the sight, everyone thought of the Leonard of the past, the boy who had first come to the mercenary band after being sold by his birth mother.

As if to ask who had been losing their temper just moments ago, Michelle, feeling uneasy, told Heath to go easy.

“What’s with you… talking like that? You’ll hurt the one listening.”

“And who was it that was hurting people with words just a moment ago… Ow!”

Rubbing the shoulder he had been struck on, Bin spoke with a sigh.

“I don’t know how the conversation drifted here, but honestly, I feel the same. In my heart, I’m on Heath’s side.”

“Hey, Bin.”

“I’ve always said it. You need to learn to look after your body better.”

It was probably the effect of having learned an assassin’s skills at a young age. Even in situations where he should defend, he swung his sword.

It must have been the same when he killed the great black lion of the Great Forest.

Paradoxically, that was probably how he had survived back then. Against a beast driven by instinct, the moment he stepped back, his throat would have been torn out.

But offering up flesh to take bone was a gamble to try only in the most desperate moment.

Fight like that every time and he wouldn’t live ten years. No, it wouldn’t be strange if he died as early as tomorrow.

That was why Camila had taught him a defensive style of swordsmanship.

Thanks to how she’d beaten the lessons into him whenever he refused to listen, the bad habits seemed to drain out of Leonard’s body. That lasted until Camila shielded Leonard and lost an arm.

The Iron-Blood Mercenary Band, once called the best among mercenaries.

But that name was now almost forgotten.

Betrayal by a comrade and a surprise attack by a rival band had left most of its members dead or injured and retired.

Nominally, even Leonard had left, so the only ones remaining were the three people here.

Leonard now told them not to mind him and to go their own way… but how could they?

The boy they had raised like a son, the one they had cherished, had given up on looking after his own body.

‘He came to the capital alone because he meant to take the blame for everything himself if it came to that.’

That was why he’d been able to say it.

‘If something happens to me, take Jeni and leave the empire. I’ll follow on my own, so don’t worry about me.’

If he was going to say that, he should have set a concrete place to meet, so they could at least pretend to be fooled. In truth, he had no intention whatsoever of following.

“I don’t know how you ended up marrying Marchioness Blair, but I doubt you made this decision because you like her. Right? Of course, it’s probably the same for her.”

“Still, seeing how she treats mercenaries like us as guests because we’re your household, I don’t think she’s just using you as a tool.”

In truth, Bin wasn’t particularly fond of this marriage.

Five hundred million Larc. Of course that was an enormous sum. If someone offered him that money to marry, Bin would gladly take their hand and walk down the aisle even if they were a withered old man.

But Leonard was different. Leonard, who had seen with his own eyes himself traded for three gold coins.

Marriage-peddling was common among commoners and in noble society alike, but people sold their daughters and sons; no one sold themselves. At least Bin had never seen it.

Yet Leonard had so easily conceived the idea of selling himself to pay off a debt with a dowry. Without the slightest resistance.

How had that been possible?

Because he himself had already been traded once. A thing that had been sold once could surely be sold twice.

“Ray, if you don’t like us hovering around you, then build a proper family.”

However much money had changed hands, he hoped this marriage wouldn’t remain a transaction for him.

“Someone who lets you rest easy that even without us, you’ll never have to sacrifice yourself.”

Not mercenaries who had merely looked after a pitiable child, not a half-sister he would leave behind once his status changed, but a real family.

He hoped Leonard would come to have something he couldn’t let go of, so that even in a moment when he truly felt he was about to die, he would grit his teeth, hold on, and cling to life.

Everyone present wished it with all their hearts.

* * *

“Your Highness, a messenger from House Matthias requests an audience.”

“Tell him to go back.”

The attendant hesitated because this wasn’t the first time a messenger from House Matthias had been turned away at the door.

Of course, Lloyd Matthias had been banned from entering the imperial palace, but that was his personal matter, not a punishment handed down on the whole Matthias family.

In such a situation, for the Second Prince to treat a Matthias messenger coldly was tantamount to slighting Count Matthias.

It might have been different if the Second Prince enjoyed power no one could encroach upon, but with the Crown Princess, practically the next emperor, standing squarely before him, he needed to stay on good terms with the nobles.

The Empress couldn’t keep watching over him forever.

But the Second Prince had never once, from the day he was born, minded the nobles’ moods.

Why should he? He had been born with the precious blood of the imperial family.