Liscia looked at him with exasperation, lending Souma shoulder to lean on. “Look, if you’re going to rest, don’t do it here, do it in your bed in the governmental affairs office. I’ll have someone put away the doll later.”
“Ahh, sorry,” said Souma. “It’d be a big help if you could do that for me.”
Souma leaned on Liscia for support as he walked on shaky legs.
“By the way, that girl, Juno?” Liscia asked as they headed to the governmental affairs office. “She was pretty cute, huh?”
Souma looked away. “I haven’t done anything with her that I should feel bad about, okay?”
“Oh, I never said anything about that, did I?” Liscia asked.
Liscia was staring, while Souma couldn’t meet her gaze.
If anyone had overheard, they might have sounded like an old married couple.
Chapter 6: Standing in Front of the Lion’s Cage
It had been a few days since we’d returned from to the royal capital Parnam from Van.
Right now, I was beneath Castle Parnam in front of the dungeon. With only candlelight for illumination, it was gloomy. While you likely could infer this from the fact it was inside the castle, a lot of people of high status had been put in here. Most of the inmates were political prisoners.
I was in that underground dungeon, facing a certain individual across a set of iron bars.
After some silence, I spoke to the person in the cage. “This is our first time meeting in person, I believe. I am the provisional king, Souma Kazuya.”
“It is an honor to meet you,” said the beastman. “I am Georg Carmine.”
With those words, the former General of the Army, the man with the face of a lion, Georg Carmine, bowed his head deeply.
While I was seated in a chair, Georg sat directly on the dungeon floor like a general from the Warring States Period might sit when greeting his master.
“I congratulate you once again on your recent victory,” Georg said, his head still bowed.
Georg had been imprisoned here a few days before our return. Up until then, he had been under house arrest at his former castle Randel, so he must have been gathering information.
“Raise your head,” I said. “It’s hard to talk when you’re like that.”
“Ha ha!” Georg laughed.
I looked straight at Georg as he raised his face. He had a muscular physique and stood nearly two meters tall, so even though he was kneeling, his eyes were at roughly the same level as mine while I sat in a chair. On top of that, the ethos he exuded as a veteran warrior made him appear all the larger.
Magnificent. That was the word that best suited this warrior.
What I felt while talking to him over the Jewel Voice Broadcast is nothing compared to this… I thought.
I struggled not to be swallowed up by the atmosphere that surrounded Georg. This feeling was similar to what I’d felt when Gaius had been closing in on me. This man had an incredible sense of presence, and yet he was the youngest of the three dukes. Castor was around 160, while Excel was over 500.
“Aren’t the apparent age and actual age of the three dukes kind of reversed?” I asked. “Oh, and mental age, too.”
When I said that, Georg gave a hearty laugh. “You could be right. Generally, they say that the longer-lived a race is, the longer it takes them to develop mentally and physically. For most the long-lived races, if you take their actual age, multiply it by around one hundred, the oldest a human or beastman generally lives to, then divide by the longest that race live to, you get a good estimate of their mental age.”
I see, I thought. In this world, where in Japan we might say “Cranes live for a thousand years, turtles for ten thousand,” they could say “Dragonewts live for five hundred years, water serpents for a thousand,” when talking about long life. (Though, in this case, they actually do live that long.) In other words, taking Castor as an example, 160 * 100 / 500 = 32. If I look at it that way, his impulsiveness makes sense, maybe… Wait! Huh? Hold on?
“By that reasoning, Excel’s mental age should be over fifty, shouldn’t it?” I asked.
“…There is an exception to every rule,” said Georg.
“Don’t blatantly look away.”
Apparently even Georg, who didn’t seem like he had to fear anyone, was hesitant to touch the topic of Excel’s age. I could relate.
After talking carrying on with that sort of aimless conversation for a while, I cut to the heart of the matter. “I had a lot I’ve wanted to ask and hear from you once we finally got the chance to meet.”
“Ask away,” said Georg.
“Before that,” I said, “won’t you meet with Liscia?”
Georg silently closed his eyes.
It seemed that just once after returning to Parnam, Liscia had asked to meet with Georg. However, Georg had shouted at her (or, to be more precise, he’d had the jailer relay the message) and chased her off.
“What business does a woman who will soon be queen have visiting a convict?!” he had shouted.
Liscia had an overly serious personality, so she’d taken those words to heart, and never attempted to visit again. Then, as if seeking a distraction, she’d immersed herself in work.
“She’s putting on a tough face, but… I know she’s not fine,” I said.
“The princess and I had our last parting during the ultimatum,” said Georg. “There is no need for words between us now.”
“You mean when she cut her hair?” I asked.
“I saw her determination and resolve in that act,” he said. “As a person, as a woman, the princess has grown into an individual who can stand on her own two feet. I don’t want her to dull that resolve by clinging to a dying man.”
He’s rejecting Liscia for her own sake, huh, I thought. Honestly… What a stubborn old man.
“I, too, have something to ask,” Georg said.
“What?”
“What has become of the soldiers in the Army and Air Force who rebelled against you alongside us?” he asked. “And what of the nobles who engaged in corruption and then rebelled?”
“In recognition of their valor in the Amidonian war, I have pardoned the soldiers of the Army and Air Force for their crimes,” I said. “The House of Vargas rebelled against me, but I must consider their accomplishments up until the time of the former king. I have decided that only Castor and Carla will be judged for their crimes. I abolished the Duchy of Vargas, but I allowed the disowned eldest son to inherit the family name, and granted him just Red Dragon City as his fief. Though, that child still being young, his mother Accela and their steward Tolman will assist him in his duties. As for Castor and Carla themselves, to repay Excel’s accomplishments in the war effort, I have heard her plea and, at a later date, I will judge the two of them personally.”
Georg closed his eyes and remained silent. How must he have felt listening to me?
“Now, as for the corrupt nobles… I abolished their houses, confiscated their domains and assets… and had them executed,” I said. “For those who acted directly, I did so publicly. For those who were merely implicated, I did so privately.”
Under current law, treason was a crime that carried a death sentence for relatives of up to three degrees of consanguinity. If, like Georg, they had cut ties with their families properly, their uninvolved relatives wouldn’t have had to get involved, but the vast majority of the corrupt nobles had neglected to do that. They must have thought they couldn’t lose.