Ch#182
The heat swirling through his body remained, but his reason had barely managed to regain its function.
Taking a deep breath, Barkas gestured toward the gathered crowd.
“It is nothing, so everyone withdraw.”
Part of him wanted to order that beast dragged out of the room immediately, but having made a promise to her, he had no choice but to endure.
Swallowing a sigh, he turned back around. Just then, the chamberlain stepped forward hesitantly from among the dispersing people.
“Um… Your Grace, I have a report…”
At the sight of the somewhat irritable look Barkas threw him, the middle-aged man flinched and shut his mouth. Barkas scraped together what remained of his patience.
“What is it?”
“The—the Guild Master of the White Silver Alliance has been waiting for several hours. He said he has an urgent report for Your Grace…”
Seeing the furrow in Barkas’s brow, the chamberlain’s voice trailed off in fear. Barkas let out a long breath.
“Tell him I will be there shortly.”
As the chamberlain hurried away, Barkas stepped back inside the bedroom.
Before he knew it, she was sitting on the edge of the bed, gently soothing the wolf that was whining incessantly. After watching the scene for a moment, Barkas spoke in a heavily subdued voice.
“I have business to attend to, so I must go. Please rest.”
“I’ll be waiting…”
Just as he was about to turn and leave, a tight, strained voice reached him.
Pausing, he looked back to see her with her neck flushed red. Fiddling with the wolf’s pointed ears, the woman barely managed to finish her sentence.
“Come back here.”
Then, burying one cheek in the wolf’s scruff, she gazed at him fixedly.
Barkas, staring into those jewel-like eyes as if transfixed, slowly nodded.
A faint smile spread across her lips. In that instant, an unfamiliar emotion stirred deep within his chest.
Only after a long while was he able to put a name to that feeling.
It was hope.
“I apologize for visiting without notice. I have news that I must inform you of urgently…”
As Barkas entered the drawing room, the man who had been pacing anxiously by the window spoke breathlessly.
Barkas sank into a chair, omitting even the formal greetings. He then gestured with his chin toward the opposite seat and asked.
“What have you found out?”
“In accordance with Your Grace’s orders, I have been stationed in the Northeast, monitoring the remnants following the House of Heimdal. While doing so, I obtained some important information…”
The Northerner, perched awkwardly on the edge of the seat across from him, pulled a crumpled ledger from his coat and held it out. As Barkas took it and scanned the contents, a deep furrow formed between his brows.
The yellowed pages recorded massive transactions of various goods, ranging from grain and iron ore to even military horses. Upon confirming the seal stamped clearly next to the entries, a hollow laugh escaped Barkas’s lips. It was the seal of an Eastern noble family he knew all too well.
“It seems some of the nobles bordering Balto have been in collusion with the North. I thought Your Grace should know, so I rushed here.”
“…Thank you for your concern.”
Offering a dry, formal word of thanks, Barkas rolled up the ledger, gripped it tightly in one hand, and stood up.
“I will have a room prepared so you can rest. Stay as long as you like.”
“There is one more thing I wish to tell you.”
Just as he was about to leave, the man called out urgently.
“Recently, the whereabouts of Bjorn Blodar Heimdal have become unknown.”
Barkas narrowed his eyes.
Bjorn was the central figure who had led the rebellion and was known to be currently under siege in Amasek alongside his father. For such a man to vanish meant that the rebels had broken through the encirclement and escaped.
Barkas looked down at him with a suspicious gaze.
“Amasek is completely blockaded. Could it not be that the man has simply gone into seclusion?”
“He is by no means a man who would quietly shut himself inside a castle. For him to not show himself for such a long period is truly unnatural.”
Taking out a handkerchief to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, the Northerner continued in a trembling voice.
“Perhaps he escaped Amasek a long time ago. No, I am certain of it. By now, he must be gathering his scattered forces and plotting a counterattack.”
“You worry too much. What can that man possibly do now?”
Barkas sneered.
“The tide has already turned. Many of the nobles in the Northern Federation have changed their minds, and most of the hardliners have been purged. Even if it is true that the man escaped, he poses no significant threat at this point.”
“That is something you can only say because you truly do not know him well.”
The man raised his voice in frustration.
“Bjorn is not someone who will just sit back and take this. He is surely preparing a terrifying counterattack somewhere. You must track his whereabouts immediately.”
The conviction in his tone caused Barkas’s brow to tighten.
What he knew of Bjorn was limited to his natural talent for swordsmanship, the overwhelming support he received from the nobles of the Northern Federation, and his exceptional tactical abilities. He knew almost nothing of the man’s personal character.
However, given that he had led such a reckless war, it was easy to guess that he was not a person with a normal way of thinking.
In the end, he nodded.
“Fine. I will take measures immediately.”
At that, the man’s shoulders slumped as if he were truly relieved.
Barkas immediately left the drawing room and moved to his study.
First, he needed to verify the authenticity of the information Lowell Draven had brought. He was not so naive as to blindly trust the words of a man playing the role of a double agent.
Sitting at his desk and pulling out a piece of parchment, Barkas began to write an order to investigate the lords of the regions adjacent to Balto. It was a letter to be sent to Daren.
If he dispatched a small number of soldiers under the pretext of purchasing military supplies, he would be able to monitor the lords of those regions without drawing much suspicion.
Adding several specific instructions, Barkas sealed the letter with wax and handed it to a messenger.
In the meantime, the sun had completely set.
Tidying his desk with restless hands, Barkas straightaway left the study. As he hurried down the stairs, he saw the guards standing watch in front of the bedroom door.
After quietly dismissing them, he knocked cautiously on the door. But no answer came.
After a moment’s hesitation, he pulled the door handle.
As he entered the quiet bedroom where the lights flickered, a musty smell hit his nose.
He soon realized the cause. Faint smoke was rising from a small brazier placed by the window.
‘Did she burn sleep-herb?’
Wondering if the pain in her leg had been severe, he approached the side of the bed and pulled back the veil. The first thing he saw was the gray beast occupying most of the wide sheet.
He scanned the completely out-of-it wolf before shifting his gaze to his wife, who lay buried beside it. She, too, appeared to be in a deep sleep.
Letting out a hollow sigh, Barkas sat down weakly on the edge of the bed. Just then, a groan-like moan was heard.
“…Are you here now?”
The woman, murmuring in a voice thick with sleep, reached out an arm toward him.
“Hurry and take me out of here. I barely managed to get him to sleep.”
Barkas stared down in silence at the woman, who was whispering without even being able to open her eyes properly, before finally leaning down slowly.
As he slid his arms beneath her waist and lightly lifted her warm body, the wolf, which had been motionless as if dead, flailed its legs.
He immediately stopped all movement. As if it were merely a bout of sleep-talking, the wolf growled low and then soon fell silent.
He let out a sigh of relief, but for a moment, a hollow laugh escaped him as he wondered what on earth he was doing.
However, the moment of self-mockery did not last long. She whispered softly against his ear.
“Let’s go out quickly before the medicine wears off.”
Barkas stood up at once. He grabbed the cloak hanging on the wall and wrapped it tightly around the woman in her thin nightgown. As he quietly stepped out of the room, the flickering lights of the hallway and the wide staircase came into view.
After a brief deliberation, Barkas climbed the stairs. He could have gone to the room she previously used, but there was a high possibility of being unnecessarily disturbed by the maids.
He entered the bedroom attached to his own study.
