Chapter 25
Fragrance and Stench
The banquet hall of Valdrova Castle.
Ferda watched from above as the knights gathered below.
“Disgusting creatures.”
Luri, who was looking down at the banquet hall beside him, spoke with open contempt.
“Your hatred of humans seems a little excessive.”
“This is not hatred of humans. Those things are simply revolting.”
As though she could no longer endure it, Luri covered her mouth and nose with a handkerchief.
“When I heard they were wandering knights, I imagined they would be something like field mice, but how can they possibly be... even worse?”
They had drenched their entire bodies in perfume.
However, the perfume only concealed their odor by the standards of a human nose. It did nothing for Luri, who was a dragonspawn.
Luri gagged.
“Do humans truly walk around giving off such bizarre odors? This is neither a scent nor a stench. What in the world is this filthy, garbage-like smell?”
Ferda nodded as though he understood.
“That much is standard when appearing before a king.”
“You mean not bathing?”
Luri stared at him as though asking whether he was serious, and Ferda nodded again.
“It is considered one of the virtues of a knight. Washing away one’s smell by bathing is regarded as shameful. Even if a knight arrives in haste, what matters is showing that he is wealthy enough to mask himself with fragrance.”
“You know a great deal about such barbaric customs.”
“I come from a knightly family, after all.”
Ferda had also considered it a barbaric custom for as long as he could remember.
Most knights probably felt the same way.
It persisted solely because it was called tradition.
The knights of the Empire were the sort of men who would stab even their own fathers if tradition demanded it.
“Will you do the same, Lord Ferda?”
“I am not a knight, so why would I bother?”
Ferda liked cleanliness.
When he had lived in a bathroom, he had always kept it spotless. Cleanliness had become such an ingrained part of him that he could no longer separate himself from it even if he tried.
“It seems everyone has gathered. What will you do?”
Ferda carefully examined the people below once more.
‘As expected, he isn’t here.’
Ferda had lured the wandering knights here by promising them land in exchange for thirty monster corpses.
The condition was intended to help him gather a large number of corpses at once, but he had also wanted to assemble the wandering knights for another reason.
‘So the Walking Fortress, Alberdo, isn’t here?’
Alberdo was a wandering knight who wore armor made from material as hard and heavy as a turtle’s shell. He carried a greatsword in one hand and a massive shield in the other.
He wandered the roads on his own two feet, without even a horse or a single squire. He was a shabby-looking yet noble knight.
‘I know he has never cared about land or loyalty, but I thought the Far East might interest him.’
Alberdo had sworn to fight everything that threatened humanity.
The Far East was naturally exposed to countless threats, so Ferda had assumed the Walking Fortress would desire a position here.
“Is there someone you are looking for?”
Luri quietly asked while he searched the crowd with his eyes.
“I suppose I am looking for him if I find him, and not looking for him if I do not.”
“What does that mean?”
“It is like walking along while hoping to find a silver coin lying on the road. Enough idle chatter. Let us go down.”
“Yes.”
Luri pointed her index finger toward the tips of Ferda’s feet.
She twirled her finger, and a white vortex began to rotate silently beneath him.
Ferda felt his body grow lighter.
‘Heaven Stair.’
It was a third-tier spell that allowed someone to descend slowly and safely from the air to the ground.
Despite being minor and largely useless, it was one of the spells nobles frequently used to preserve their dignity.
Ferda stepped onto the empty air, and his body slowly descended diagonally toward the platform.
“Huh?”
Someone noticed Ferda and made a sound.
“Someone is coming down.”
“Is that... the master of this castle?”
The oblivious wandering knights stared blankly as he descended.
Ferda clasped his hands behind his back and placed one foot upon the platform.
He smoothly turned around and looked down at the wandering knights.
He carried the lofty dignity of a great mage, perfectly suited to the elegant spell.
Even the most oblivious wandering knights had no choice but to fall silent.
“It is good to meet you.”
He greeted them in a solemn voice.
Stephan, who had been watching Ferda, momentarily lost himself in the young man’s extraordinary presence.
‘That is Valdrova’s kept man? The foolish brat drunk on power?’
His surprise was understandable.
He had heard that the Dread Queen’s fiancé was a young man who had only recently come of age, but Ferda truly was young.
Not one of the wandering knights was younger than him. Even the youngest among them was five years older.
‘And yet he carries himself with such dignity... His charisma is no weaker than that of family heads who have held their positions for decades.’
Despite Ferda being more than five years his junior, Stephan could not even imagine trying to assert himself through age.
‘This isn’t the time for that!’
Stephan had been captivated by Ferda’s appearance before suddenly coming to his senses.
He was standing before a ruler with his legs stiff and straight!
Several quick-witted knights were already kneeling.
Stephan lightly nudged Lovellus in the side.
“Sir.”
“Uh, yes? What?”
“You must kneel.”
“What? Ah... right!”
Only then did Lovellus understand and hurriedly drop to one knee.
His flustered behavior was improper according to etiquette, but what did that matter?
The other knights soon came to their senses and knelt as well.
Ferda continued.
“I am Ferda Valdrova, fiancé of the Dread Queen of Valdrova and the current regent of the duchy.”
“We greet the Regent of the Duchy!”
Someone offered the greeting in a booming voice.
The knights who had been staring blankly followed belatedly, echoing the greeting.
One knight who had been waiting at the very front swept back his hair.
He attempted to introduce himself before anyone else.
“It is truly an honor to set foot upon the domain ruled by the great sovereign of power. As for myself—”
“Ah, there is no need for that.”
Ferda cut off the greasy knight before he could continue.
Refusing to hear a knight’s introduction was a violation of royal etiquette.
‘Why did he deliberately stop him?’
There was no need to think deeply about it.
Ferda had never intended to observe proper etiquette in the first place.
“The wrapping you have prepared is of no use to me. Everything inside is nothing but rubbish, so why bother raising anyone’s expectations?”
“...Pardon?”
“W-What do you... mean?”
All the wandering knights voiced their confusion.
Their plate armor clattered noisily.
‘Aah! This is terrifying! Absolutely terrifying!’
The perfume had already made Stephan’s head spin. Now that the atmosphere had turned hostile as well, he could barely think straight.
After hurling the insult, Ferda remained as calm as a great river flowing in silence.
“Would you prefer that I put it more plainly? I am saying that every one of you is hollow inside. You are like puffed bread filled with nothing but air, or empty carts that make the loudest noise.”
Thud!
Someone struck the floor with a gauntleted fist.
“Your words go too far, Regent! I implore you to withdraw them!”
A fierce-looking knight spoke.
His armor was covered in scratches, making him look like a veteran who had crossed countless battlefields.
He was the man who had purchased thirty monster corpses from Stephan.
‘Wow, he is unbelievably shameless.’
As Stephan stared at him in disgust, Ferda calmly looked down at the knight.
“My words go too far...”
Ferda nodded as though acknowledging the accusation.
“Very well. If I am mistaken, I shall apologize to all of you.”
With his hands still clasped behind his back, Ferda walked along the grain of the wooden platform.
His gaze swept across every wandering knight.
“Is there anyone here who personally hunted all thirty monsters he brought?”
“Urk...”
“...”
Some of the knights who had been preparing to rage at the insult cleared their throats and lowered their heads.
Those who did not, however, watched the others’ reactions with scornful smiles.
The fierce-looking knight still held his head high.
This time, Ferda addressed those who had not looked away.
“Then is there anyone among you who hunted all thirty alone?”
“Well...”
“To hunt them alone would be...”
One knight began to mutter, only to fall silent beneath Ferda’s overpowering gaze.
A few more lowered their heads and made uncomfortable noises.
However, those who continued holding their heads high were claiming that they had obtained the monsters purely through their own strength without purchasing them from anyone.
‘There is no possibility that such a person is among them.’
Any wandering knight powerful enough to hunt thirty monsters alone would already be serving beneath someone.
The fact that all of them were brazenly holding their heads high meant they were all lying.
They were acting shamelessly because they believed Ferda could not possibly know what they had done.
‘No. Unless the lord is an extraordinary fool, there is no way he would believe them without question.’
Stephan watched Ferda’s reaction.
Ferda met the eyes of those still holding their heads high, then simply nodded.
“I see.”
Ferda accepted their claims.
That easily?
“Then I shall apologize.”
Ferda approached the young attendant standing beside him and held out his hand.
She pulled a scroll sealed with red wax from within her skirt.
“Do you know what this is?”
Ferda asked as he held it up.
Even the slowest among them immediately recognized it.
“This contains the deed to the territory formerly administered by Thessalos Walcher, along with the certificate of nobility. All that is required for them to take effect is for one of your names to be written upon them.”
It was the prize every knight desired.
“You did, after all, hunt and present thirty monsters. I must keep my promise, must I not?”
He placed it upon the table on the platform and continued.
“You must want it...”
Those words became the signal flare announcing the beginning of a war.
“Come and take it.”
Light blazed in the eyes of every wandering knight.
Stephan instinctively shrank back.
He had seen situations like this more times than he cared to remember.
‘They’re like middle-aged women when you put up a seventy-percent-off sign to clear out inventory!’
Being caught among a crowd of frenzied bargain hunters was enough to make the saying about a shrimp getting its back broken in a battle between whales feel entirely appropriate.
These people were knights, so the struggle would be even more violent.
Stephan decided it would be better not to watch and lowered his head.
Yet no one moved.
Not even Lovellus beside him.
Stephan cautiously raised his head and asked Lovellus,
“Sir, aren’t you going?”
“Ugh... Uuugh...”
No, he could not go.
Lovellus was suffering.
His eyes were opened so wide that they looked ready to pop from their sockets, and he was staring fixedly at one spot.
Stephan wondered what he could possibly be looking at and absentmindedly turned his head.
“H-Hurk!”
Stephan also made a strangled noise.
‘A-A dragon?’
The place where the attendant had clearly been standing...
A silver dragon was now coiled there, glaring at them.
Every one of them had been rendered completely immobile by its gaze.
‘What the hell is that? When did it get here? N-No, did we somehow come somewhere else?’
Stephan began to wonder whether he had been transported to another location.
His fear was so deep that it interfered with rational thought.
While everyone remained frozen, someone rose to his feet.
“Success...”
He breathed like an old man on the verge of death.
“Land...”
“Escape... marriage...!”
Like dying old men, they began to stagger painfully toward the blank certificate.
As the race toward the platform began—
Grrrrr.
The dragon’s form twisted.
The creature that had remained still began growling angrily as they approached.
The wandering knights who had forced themselves to move froze once again.
The coiled silver dragon began to stir.
Rooooaaar!
It roared as though someone had touched its reverse scale.
—What will happen to the knights if you use Dragon Fear?
Ferda had asked Luri before meeting the knights.
—Most of them will flee. They will believe a dragon is chasing them.
—What if you use it weakly?
—Hmm. Their five senses will convince them that a dragon is present, and they will become unable to move.
—That should be appropriate. When I give the signal, can you release a little Dragon Fear?
—At the knights?
—Yes. If we are going to choose the ruler of a territory, should we not at least make certain that the candidate is not a coward?
Ferda had said that, and Luri had agreed to a certain extent.
‘I thought it would not matter who won...’
Luri’s opinion gradually began to change.
People often said that actually beginning a task felt different from merely imagining it, but there was another decisive factor that shook her resolve.
‘That damned smell.’
It was the smell.
Dragon Fear caused them to break out in cold sweat and raised their body temperatures.
Hot waves of heat rose from them, causing the perfume and their natural body odor to spread even more intensely.
A disgusting cloud commonly known as a “sweat cloud” had formed near the ceiling.
Even Ferda could now smell the foul mixture.
For Luri, it was nothing short of hell.
The men sweating so profusely were probably unaware of it.
They were too overwhelmed by Luri’s Dragon Fear.
Some trembled in terror, while others, consumed by greed, forcibly lifted their feet and continued moving.
“I-I’m finally going to... turn my life around...!”
“A-A d-d-dragon is n-not s-scary at a-all!”
They were even voicing their ugly innermost desires aloud.
Sight, smell, and sound had now combined into a threefold assault upon Luri’s patience.
‘I want to throw them all out immediately.’
Even so, Luri did her best to fulfill her role.
She intended to watch them until the very end.
But then Luri’s silver eyes were forced to witness it.
The man in the lead was climbing onto the platform.
He had not bathed for several days, and a terrible stench rolled from his body.
Layers of sweat had likely flowed and dried repeatedly upon his skin.
A single drop of fresh sweat ran down his cheek.
It dissolved the old grime on his face and absorbed it as it traveled downward.
When the filthy drop reached the tip of his chin, it hung there like water gathered at the end of a stalactite.
Drip.
The filthy, stinking sweat soaked into the precious floor of Valdrova Castle.
Crack.
Something broke inside Luri’s mouth.
The instant all that information assembled itself into a complete picture in Luri’s mind, she momentarily lost her reason.
Her Dragon Fear erupted at full strength and covered the entire banquet hall.
It lasted only an instant, but that was more than enough.
“Aaaaaah! I don’t want to die!”
The knights who had been forcing themselves forward despite their fear were the first to turn and run.
Panic spread in an instant.
“Move! I’m just going home!”
“Aaaaaah! Mother! Motherrrr!”
The knights began running wildly, their armor clattering.
They all raced for the entrance, each trying to escape ahead of the others.
The banquet hall was empty within moments.
“Hmm...”
Ferda looked at the battered doors and spoke.
“I had hoped to observe them a little longer. What a shame.”
“...I apologize.”
“It is fine. Mediocre men like those are everywhere. We can simply choose again, can we not?”
Ferda’s eyes quietly shifted elsewhere.
“Besides, the selection was not a complete failure.”
In the place that looked as though a storm had swept through it, one man remained standing.
He was not a knight.
His legs were trembling, but upon closer inspection, it was because he was desperately forcing them to remain in place so he would not flee.
Tears streamed from his eyes.
Mucus ran from his nose.
Fluids poured from every opening in his face.
He looked as though he might suffocate from fear at any moment.
And yet his eyes remained fixed upon Ferda.
Whoever he was, he appeared worthy of a conversation.
Valdrova Castle, reception room.
“What is your name?”
“S-S-Stephan Pascal.”
“Is your name S-Stephan?”
“I-I’m s-sorry. I st-stuttered over my own name. It is Ste! Fan!”
“That is fine. I understood. I merely wished to make certain. Speak slowly. There is no need to push yourself.”
“Y-Yessir! Hoo... Hooo...”
Stephan had yet to recover from the aftereffects of Dragon Fear.
He repeatedly took deep breaths, but there was no possibility of calming himself after only a few.
‘His mental strength, at least, is extraordinary.’
The fact that he could still hold a conversation despite his violently trembling mouth was proof enough.
Ferda swallowed his admiration and asked,
“If you are a member of the Pascal family, are you connected to the Pascal Trading Company I am thinking of?”
“Y-Yes. I am H-Herman Pascal’s second son! I am c-currently the branch ch-chief of the company’s imperial headquarters. No, the branch! Chief!”
“I see. What brought you here?”
“I-I was s-selling monster corpses to the k-knights, and I thought that perhaps Your Grace m-might also need monster corpses, so I came to d-discuss...”
He had come with a clear objective.
It was because he could not abandon that objective that he had suppressed his instinct to flee through sheer reason.
‘The problem, however, is still...’
The name Stephan Pascal itself.
‘I have never heard of him.’
Herman Pascal was the most famous merchant not only within the Empire, but across the entire continent.
Naturally, Ferda knew of him.
Following Herman’s death, a major succession dispute had erupted.
However, only two people were considered central contenders.
Merchant and Tilda.
‘So Stephan is a solitary sailboat...’
On a day without even the slightest breeze, he would drift forever before dying forgotten.
He possessed the qualifications of an heir, but lacked the support and reputation necessary to survive.
There were more than enough reasons to regard him as insignificant.
‘But if his fate is to collapse because he lacks support in the final stretch...’
What would happen if Ferda supplied that missing support?
‘Merchant and Tilda have already firmly established their own factions.’
Even if Ferda sided with either of them, there would be no benefits left for him to claim.
‘Introduce Stephan as a new axis in the succession struggle.’
Should the plan succeed, Ferda would gain access to the trade network and intelligence of the Pascal Trading Company, known as the greatest commercial enterprise in the Empire.
It would contribute enormously to the development and technological advancement of the Far East, which was currently little better than untamed wilderness.
“You.”
Having reached his decision, Ferda spoke.
“While you calm yourself, would you care to hear one utterly absurd proposal?”