Chapter 81
“Windsor Langster! Show proper etiquette in front of Marquis Fernandi and the Grand Duke Baltstein!”
One of the knights who had brought the one-armed knight rebuked him in a stern voice. Only then did the one-armed knight look around the room with hollow eyes.
“Marquis…? Grand Duke…?”
And at the end of his gaze, I was caught.
“Marion?”
I bit my lip. Who would have thought that the witness the marquis had found would be the one-armed knight.
The marquis stood up from his seat and said to him.
“Windsor Langster. A few days before the execution, you escaped when the prison collapsed due to a disaster.”
Damn, the prison collapsed.
Since the noble prison where I was held also collapsed, there was a high probability that the prisons holding other prisoners had collapsed as well. Some would have been crushed to death under the rubble, but the one-armed knight seemed to have luckily survived.
“H-Hu, Marquis…. I didn’t escape, but….”
The one-armed knight, whose identity had been revealed, stammered excuses with a panicked face. But no one in the room was curious about his words.
I quickly looked at the Grand Duke. The Grand Duke was secretly taking out a magic communication orb from his pocket.
He rubbed the small magic communication orb while shielding it with his body so that the Demon King could not see it.
It was a signal to Lucas, who was leading the army as reinforcements. A signal to prepare because things were turning urgent.
I swallowed hard. I had to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
“I already know your crimes. You will pay the appropriate price later. But what I’m curious about now is not that.”
The marquis cut off the one-armed knight’s words and continued to ask.
“Is it true that you took in young Marion and taught her swordsmanship?”
“…M-Marion, you mean?”
The Grand Duke’s face did not look good. From the look of it, Lucas and the army seemed to be delayed. We had to buy time.
I stood up from my seat.
“Marquis.”
“…What is it, Sir Marion.”
I felt the Demon King’s gaze following me, but I ignored it.
“It’s true that the one-armed knight taught me swordsmanship, but he did not take me in and raise me.”
To be precise, it felt like the one-armed knight occasionally stayed in the slums.
He was the kind of person who would disappear for a long time when he had money from somewhere, and come to the slums to seek lodging when his money ran out—like a guest.
The one-armed knight back then was not as broken as he is now.
He was a man of few words, but he was the rare type in the slums who would sometimes share food with the children if he had any. That’s why I was able to lower my guard and approach him.
I still remember it. The way he looked at the children and stroked his sword with one hand.
Unlike his shabby appearance, only the sword was noticeably well-maintained and clean. I was curious about the object he cherished so much and would often peek at it.
“Kid. It’s a dangerous thing for children to handle. Go away.”
“Uncle, are you a knight?”
“I was, once.”
“Wow, that’s cool! If I get good at handling a sword, can I become a knight too?”
“…Do you want to learn swordsmanship?”
“Yes! If I become a knight, I can eat delicious things as much as I want, right?”
After that, he visited the slums more often and taught me swordsmanship. Luckily, I had talent and gradually blossomed.
“Is this the right way?”
“…You’re really amazing.”
“Hehe.”
I vividly remember his surprised expression every time I swung the crudely made wooden sword. I also remember swinging the sword even harder to hear more of his praise.
“What nonsense, Marion! You became a Sword Master all thanks to me raising you! I’m no different from your father!”
The one-armed knight, whose appearance was more grotesque than in the past, was shouting while spitting saliva. Right in front of me was a man who had lost even the minimum pride as a knight.
Returning to the present, I looked at him with cold eyes.
“I once felt gratitude toward you, even if only for a time.”
“Th-That’s right. Everything you’ve achieved is all thanks to me….”
“But why did you sell me to a mercenary group?”
His face, which had looked like he had grabbed a lifeline from the sky, hardened in an instant.
With an expressionless face, I brought up the curiosity I had buried in the past and didn’t want to know even until the moment I died.
Why was I abandoned?
“I wondered all my life while living. Why did a person who says he’s no different from a father sell me, who was only thirteen?”
The room was silent.
I felt people’s gazes, but I stared only at the one-armed knight.
For a moment, misery rushed over me, but when I thought of Kaiden lying behind me with a face as pale as paper, this felt like nothing. My misery was nothing compared to a person’s life.
The one-armed knight rolled his eyes and hesitantly opened his mouth.
“…Y-You know too, how hungry we were. Your skills were better than most adults, and I thought if you joined a mercenary group, you could definitely make money by performing well….”
It was nonsense.
“Without my consent, without saying a word to me about joining a mercenary group, you sold me for money right in front of my eyes, and you think that’s an excuse?”
At my flat question, he bit his lip for a moment and then shamelessly shouted.
“You followed willingly too! That’s consent, isn’t it?!”
“At that time, I followed because you said I could earn money, but there was no mention of selling me.”
“It wasn’t selling, it was sending you to earn money…!”
“You clearly said that when handing me over to the mercenary group like an object, didn’t you? That I’m a smart kid so I’d earn my keep. Then why did you receive the money for that keep?”
“Th-That’s…!”
The verbal battle continued. I had to buy time this way at least.
Where is Lucas now? It feels like more than an hour has passed since we stayed at the marquis’s castle, and I desperately hoped inside that he would hurry a bit more.
That was when it happened.
“Stop.”
Those words rang in my head.
Goosebumps rose. Not only me and the one-armed knight, but everyone in the room flinched in surprise.
Swallowing saliva, I turned around to see the Demon King looking at me with indifferent eyes. An overwhelming pressure that ordinary people could not feel emanated from him.
“There is only one thing I’m curious about.”
An irresistible voice pressed down on people’s minds. We couldn’t make a single sound and watched as he slowly raised the bracelet.
“If you saw Marion when she was young, you would know this bracelet too.”
I quickly looked at the Grand Duke. The Grand Duke shook his head with a pale face. It was a signal that Lucas was still far away.
“Answer. Did you see Marion wearing it?”
The one-armed knight looked at the bracelet with trembling eyes. He was so terrified that he could only open and close his mouth without speaking.
The Demon King reduced his energy with a pitiful expression. As breathing became easier, he coughed and opened his mouth.
“I-I’ve never seen it.”
Damn. I had to shut that mouth.
“Of course you wouldn’t have seen it. Because you wouldn’t have had any interest in me.”
“Interest or not, how could a kid living in the slums have jewelry? In days when even eating one piece of bread was a luxury.”
At the one-armed knight’s retort, I clenched my teeth and shouted.
“I often hid it secretly so that outsiders like you wouldn’t see it!”
“Don’t make me laugh. Do you think I never searched for anything valuable while you kids were sleeping?”
What? For a moment, it felt like someone had hit the back of my head, making it sting. He searched for valuables in that pile of slum shacks?
“There were no jewelry, and even if there were, I would have secretly taken and sold them. Yes, just like I sold you to the mercenary group!”
He snarled viciously.
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