“H-His Excellency...”
“His Excellency, brother to the King, wishes to speak with you!”
I blinked.
The room was full of vibrant colors. Woven fabric in various hues adorned the walls, and the decor could be summed up in a single word: grandeur. It suggested power without being in poor taste. The room had probably been specifically designed with that intention.
Menel and I had been invited to the mansion that belonged to the lord of Whitesails, and we had just now been shown into the room where he received guests.
“Welcome to my mansion, hero.” Standing on the other side of a big ebony desk, Duke Ethelbald Rex Fertile welcomed us with arms spread wide. Brother to the King of the Fertile Kingdom, he was the feudal lord of Whitesails and the ruler of Southmark.
He has piercing eyes, I thought. They were dark gray, and seemed to penetrate to my very soul. They reminded me of the keen eyes of a bird of prey.
His hair was thin, gray, and cut short, his gaze was stern, and he looked like he had done a good amount of physical training. He was wearing high-quality, tailor-made clothes, a sword on his hip. The scabbard wasn’t highly ornamented, and looked quick to unsheath, which told me that the weapon wasn’t just for decoration.
Behind him stood two serious-looking guards in full armor.
“It is an honor more than I deserve to be in the presence of your glory. My name is William G. Maryblood, here at Your Excellency’s request.” I placed my right hand on the left side of my chest, brought my left leg back slightly, and bowed.
“Oh?” the Duke of Southmark said quietly. Had I messed something up? “I am surprised you are familiar with such old ceremony. Am I correct in assuming you are a man of blue blood?” he asked, then responded to me with an identical gesture.
It seemed as though I had done okay, but he’d gotten slightly the wrong impression. “Not quite, um... I would appreciate it if Your Excellency would avoid questions about my birth.”
Well, it couldn’t be helped. It was my fault for not explaining.
“Ha ha ha. So you have some circumstances. Very well, then. Please, sit.”
He offered me a chair and sat down in his own. I bowed slightly and sat.
I quickly realized without looking that Menel hadn’t taken a chair himself, but had remained standing behind me and a little to my right. That took me by surprise. Why was he acting as if he was my servant?
Wait... Did he just leave me to handle this entire conversation with the big cheese?!
I turned my head slightly and sent him a death glare. I saw the corner of his mouth curling upwards. Ass, I thought, and returned my eyes to the duke. Looking around too much in front of the host who invited me would be rude.
“I am surprised to see that only a representative is here...” he said. “My orders were to bring all of you.”
“Huh?” I said, shocked. Was I supposed to have brought Bee and Tonio with me? Bee had actually been interested in seeing the inside of a feudal lord’s mansion, but she hadn’t played any part in the battle against the wyvern, so we’d asked her and Tonio to wait at the temple.
“William, you were traveling in a party of four or perhaps five, I’m assuming.”
“Ah, yes. There’s four of us.” How did he know that?
“A sorcerer, a priest, an elementalist, and a warrior, then. Yes, that’s quite a nice balance.”
“Huh?”
“Hmm?”
Okay, uh... “We’re a priest, a hunter, a merchant, and a poet...”
“Hmm...?”
Was one of us... misunderstanding something?
“One who cast lightning at the wyvern, one who erected a wall of light around the temple, one who manipulated the wind, and lastly, the man I’ve heard so much about, the warrior who engaged a wyvern bare-handed and broke its neck. Four. Yes?”
“O-Oh.” Now I understood. “Your Excellency, I am terribly sorry for the confusion, but if that is what you mean, I am certain that there has been no mistake in simply the two of us coming here.”
“Hm? You mean—”
I nodded. “My friend Meneldor called to the elementals, dispersed the Words, and made the wyvern plummet to earth by manipulating the wind.”
“Then he is the elementalist. I see. What about the others?”
“They were me.”
“Sorry, could you explain in detail what exactly you did?”
“First, I attempted an independent lightning strike against the wyvern. This failed. With the help of Meneldor’s powers, I attempted a second strike. This succeeded in provoking the wyvern and luring it to us. After that, I attempted to use the Sanctuary prayer to prevent it from swooping in and managed to kill its momentum, but unfortunately, after the wyvern emitted a mysterious corrupting gas, I ultimately allowed it to break through...”
Describing my own failures out loud was making me feel a little pathetic. Mary would have been able to stave off the attack for sure.
“Things were looking precarious for a moment, but with Meneldor’s elementals helping by providing a burst of downwards air, I forced the wyvern down into the front garden with the Word of Knotting. A crowd was still assembled in the area, so I aimed to finish the wyvern off not with highly destructive magic, but by stabbing my spear into its heart. However, I failed at this.”
Blood would have given me a strange look for making a mistake like that. I seriously needed to go back and train again from the ground up.
“The wyvern was on the verge of breathing fire and causing casualties in the crowd, so I had no choice but to take the offensive once more, this time with my bare hands. It tried to bite me. I dodged. I grabbed its neck and threw it against the ground, held it down, and throttled it to prevent it from breathing fire. I had magically enhanced my strength beforehand, so I remained in that position and let my muscles do the rest, the battle concluding with me breaking the wyvern’s neck.”
What a mucky fight. After I finished outlining the battle—a battle which, for me, left a lot of regrets—the duke’s mouth twisted into a crooked smile. “So you killed a wyvern and aren’t even proud. It pleases me to see that truly brave warriors exist not just in legend.” And he chuckled.
“If Your Excellency doesn’t mind me saying, are you sure you can afford to spend time talking to me like this?” I asked. “Don’t you need to be helping the city handle the damage done by the wyvern?” With many civil servants and people who seemed to be military officers busily moving around, things had looked pretty hectic outside the mansion.
“Of course. I have seen to a number of things already, and I have much more to do after you leave as well. Reports, instructions, visiting the sites personally and offering reassurance, hearing petitions...” The duke humorously counted them off on his fingers. “But there are matters of higher priority.” He looked at me. “For example... giving my thanks to the hero who solved the root problem.” He gave me a roguish smile.
“Oh, no, you don’t need to...”
“Do not humble yourself. I do not wish for my people to speak ill of me and call me a man who doesn’t know gratitude.” The duke sat up straight and faced me and Menel. “On behalf of Whitesails, I would like to express my gratitude to the both of you. Thank you for greatly limiting the damage that could have been caused by that sudden wyvern attack.” He even bowed slightly.
Even I realized that a person with this much power bowing their head was not a normal occurrence. Some people may think that it doesn’t cost a person anything to bow and is of little consequence, but when you become someone this powerful, bowing to others will cause you to lose your authority.