‘Damn it! Everywhere I go, it’s Count Krissus this, Count Krissus that! I wish I never had to hear his name again.’
His eyes, which resembled a cloudy winter sky, grew colder with hatred.
Laslo, the Mercenary King, had appeared as unexpectedly as a midsummer downpour.
Achieving incredible military merit, receiving a title of count, and then snatching the position of the youngest Captain of the Imperial Guard—to Edmund, it all felt like a nightmare. It was because he had had everything he aimed to claim taken away from him so easily.
‘The Emperor is just trying to keep the nobles in check. Otherwise, why would he give the position of Captain of the Imperial Guard to a vagabond like that?’
Edmund ground his teeth.
Every action taken by the Emperor, Demarcus, had a purpose. He had never met anyone in his life who acted with such meticulous calculation.
Therefore, his favoring of Laslo was a message to the nobility. It was a dangerous and provocative message: ‘If you aren’t careful, I can take your positions away just like that.’
‘Even so, this is excessive. Acting this way is only going to provoke the nobles. I can even understand why Duke Lancaster wanted to seek independence.’
Longing for the days when the power of the nobility surpassed that of the Imperial family, Edmund headed toward the knights’ barracks. He intended to change out of his sweat-soaked clothes and leave the palace.
However, the topic of conversation there was also Laslo.
“About the Captain of the Imperial Guard—doesn’t that workaholic seem to be leaving the palace early these days?”
“Heh, heh. Why do you think? He’s got a honey jar hidden away at home, that’s why.”
“A honey jar? What do you mean by that?”
A senior knight wiggled his pinky finger at a younger knight and smiled lewdly.
“He was granted Edele Lancaster. Don’t you remember?”
At those words, the surrounding knights chimed in, snickering.
“Wow, back then, I really wondered which one of us would get her, but even she got snatched up by Count Krissus!”
“If it were me, I’d have her stripped naked and wouldn’t even let her out of bed.”
“Ugh, just thinking about it makes me ache below.”
The knights’ conversation immediately spiraled into obscenities.
Edele’s beauty had shone through even while being dragged roughly from the Duchy for half a month.
While all the ladies attending the victory banquet were draped in flashy dresses and jewels, none were as beautiful as the sorrowful yet upright Edele.
“Honestly, she was too fine a woman to be sold off to that decrepit old Duke Lancaster. It was a loss for humanity.”
“But I heard a rumor that Duke Lancaster couldn’t touch her anyway. The Duke had an old mistress, right? She was so vicious that they say the two never even shared a room.”
“Being henpecked by one’s wife is the same for the Duke as it is for us, isn’t it? Hahaha!”
“Wait, hold on. Does that mean Edele Lancaster is still a virgin?”
“Whoa! Count Krissus hit the jackpot! I wish I could at least see her up close.”
Edmund, who had been silently listening while changing his clothes, found the lewd fantasies filling these men’s heads disgusting, but a sharp idea suddenly occurred to him, and he smiled.
“If you’re that curious, why don’t you ask Count Krissus to invite you over?”
The knights’ gazes turned toward Edmund, who had suddenly joined the conversation.
They had deliberately excluded him because they thought he might be uncomfortable with such topics, so they looked surprised.
“H-how could we do that? Walk up and say, ‘I’m curious about the woman you were granted, so please invite us over’?”
At the reply, the room erupted in laughter again.
‘Stupid idiots. With that level of brainpower, it’s no wonder they’re just low-level knights.’
Edmund held back his desire to sneer and smiled again.
“Do you really need to put it like that? The Imperial Guard and the Imperial Knights are in a cooperative relationship, and since we went to suppress the rebellion together, it’s not like Count Krissus doesn’t know you. Just politely ask him if he wouldn’t mind teaching you a thing or two privately.”
“Oh! As expected of Lord Milton!”
“A smart person really is different!”
The knights even clapped, praising Edmund’s idea.
Even so, Edmund did not forget to create an escape route for himself.
“Well, that’s just a suggestion. Don’t go there thinking about ogling a woman—just go and learn something from Count Krissus. Come back and pass it on to your colleagues.”
Only then did they look at him with admiration, as if thinking, ‘Well, that makes sense.’
Just as he said, the Imperial Guard and the Imperial Knights were cooperative, but there was also a slight atmosphere of competition between their commanders.
The knights were impressed by Edmund’s attitude of acknowledging such an opponent and encouraging them to learn from him, showing a level of detachment not befitting his young age.
Of course, the knights were far more interested in the woman than in learning.
“Should we really try asking him?”
“Yeah! What is there to lose? It’s a mansion granted by the Emperor, so how nice must it be? Let’s just say we want to go see it.”
As a few knights whose brains were located in their lower bodies began to formulate a plan, Edmund gave a subtle piece of advice.
“Don’t forget that your excuse must be a sparring session! I heard the practice field at Count Krissus’s mansion is wide and excellent.”
“Oh! Great, in that case, let’s go and say it like this…”
They huddled together, whispering, and began running toward the Imperial Guard building.
* * *
Laslo, too, had finished training the Imperial Guard and was changing in his office.
Even in winter, after training for over three hours, his whole body would be drenched in sweat, so clean towels and spare clothes were always ready in his locker.
He was changing in his office, which was always quiet because no one ever visited, when he felt a presence outside that was different from usual.
‘Hmm…? Did someone come outside?’
Laslo tensed as he heard footsteps loitering outside instead of entering immediately, but he soon relaxed and finished changing.
‘If they were assassins or anyone trying to attack me, they wouldn’t be this clumsy.’
He was indifferently smoothing his cuffs when the group outside finally knocked on the door.
“It is Terry Bogarden, Angelo Valen, and Joseph Oz of the Knights. We have come to see the Captain of the Imperial Guard.”
“Come in.”
Laslo wondered why members of the Imperial Knights had come all the way to the Imperial Guard building, but he did not give them his attention immediately.
Only after carefully fastening the last button of his cuffs did he turn his head to scan the men.
“I haven’t seen your faces before.”
His voice was not arrogant, but it made one want to take a step back.
The men from the Knights, who had come over in a mood to play around, finally began to wonder if they had walked into the jaws of a tiger.
However, shamelessness was their specialty.
“We haven’t reached a level of skill that would catch your eye, Captain. We apologize.”
“Never mind the flattery. What is it?”
“Well… I don’t know if this is a sudden request—no, it definitely is a sudden request… Um… aren’t the Imperial Knights and the Imperial Guard in a cooperative relationship?”
Laslo’s brow twitched slightly.
In his experience, circling around the topic like that meant they were hiding something.
“Sir Terry Bogarden. Just tell me briefly what you want.”
Perhaps noticing the warning, the man called Terry smiled awkwardly and said:
“Would you allow us the honor of being trained at your mansion, Count Krissus?”
“…”
Laslo revised his initial thought. The preamble earlier had indeed been pointless.
“That is certainly… a sudden request.”
“Ah, hahaha! It’s embarrassing even for me to say it. I know it’s a bother to a busy Captain. So, you may refuse.”
That remark piqued Laslo’s curiosity.
“Then why did you go out of your way to come and ask?”
“We want to become stronger as well. But training in the Imperial Palace is what everyone else does; when you repeat training with your fellow knights, you get to know each other too well and become lazy.”
Then, a man named Angelo beside him chimed in.
“We worried about how we could become stronger. We concluded that, if possible, we wanted to be trained just once by someone very strong who could look at us objectively.”
Joseph joined in to explain their situation in exhaustive detail, and Terry provided the final word.
“We were very hesitant to even approach you, as this request is entirely to our benefit. However, a member of the Imperial Guard mentioned that you always keep your doors open to knights with the desire to improve…”
Having heard that much, Laslo nodded curtly, though he felt rather cynical about it.
What Terry had heard was not a lie.
Immediately after he was appointed Captain of the Imperial Guard, chaos had erupted within the ranks. The Imperial Guard was a gathering of those who considered themselves the absolute elite among knights; who would easily accept a commander who had risen from the ranks of mercenaries?
*It’s a position that draws criticism even when one is hand-picked from the most formidable and renowned knights,* he thought.
However, the Emperor had not the slightest intention of retracting his decision, and whipping the Imperial Guard into shape was a task that rested solely on Laslo’s shoulders.