Ch#188
188
Feeling the muscles in his neck tighten, Barkas leaned back against the headrest of his chair.
Spread across the mahogany desk—eight kvets (approximately 240 centimeters) wide—was a list of heretics collected by the investigators and a map marked with locations suspected to be meeting points for the looters.
Barkas scanned them thoroughly before speaking to Beyroff, who sat opposite him.
“When is the next meeting date?”
“The coming new moon. It appears a large-scale gathering will take place at an abandoned mine on the outskirts of Heswen.”
“That’s quite soon.”
Barkas stroked his chin, his expression lost in thought, before his gaze shifted to the list of apostates.
“Have you determined the size of the enemy force?”
“According to the interrogations, they claim hundreds or even thousands will gather, but… the testimonies vary so much they are difficult to trust.”
Beyroff continued cynically.
“Ignorant commoners often mistake a hundred people for a vast army, don’t they? Realistically, we estimate between two hundred and fifty to three hundred.”
Barkas let out a scoffing laugh. That size was beyond a mere bandit group; it was large enough to be called a military unit.
While laughable compared to the forces held by the Grand Duchy, the problem lay in the fact that the Zram people had managed to organize an army in the heart of the Eastern Region.
‘There may be organizations like this scattered all over this land.’
Swallowing a heavy sigh, Barkas gave his instructions in a clipped tone.
“Contact the local lords. We’ll wait for them to assemble and wipe them all out at once.”
“Do you intend to command the operation yourself, Your Grace?”
“Yes. I must personally remove the weeds that have taken root in my own front yard.”
Replying coldly, Barkas slowly rose from his seat.
As he was about to leave the office, Beyroff spoke up cautiously.
“What do you intend to do with the heretics?”
“For now, place them under surveillance.”
Barkas replied, turning back with his hand on the doorknob.
“If we round them all up now, word might reach the looters. We will wait for the right moment and arrest them by surprise.”
“…The numbers are considerable. There may be significant backlash from the residents.”
“Even so, we cannot simply sit by and watch the heretics run rampant, can we?”
Barkas countered sharply.
“If we leave the apostates be, the Central Church will dispatch inquisitors. It would be better for them to face a heresy trial in the Eastern Church than to have their limbs torn apart at the hands of the central inquisitors.”
Beyroff fell silent, unable to find a rebuttal. Turning away from his aide’s troubled face, Barkas headed straight out of the barracks.
A thin drizzle was falling over the training grounds. He stepped out into it, his long strides matching the effort to organize his complicated thoughts.
Since being incorporated into the Empire, the citizens of the East had been officially baptized and lived as followers of the Imperial Faith.
Those who refused and insisted on remaining followers of the Great Spirit Religion had been driven to the outskirts of the East to live as outcasts.
The fact that they were beginning to expand their influence throughout the East again felt like a warning sign that the Empire’s governing structure was fracturing.
‘First the North… and now the East is a mess.’
He brushed back his dampening hair roughly. A sense of futility washed over him, as if he were desperately trying to protect a sandcastle against an oncoming tide.
After staring up at the gray sky with dark, somber eyes, Barkas slowly crossed the training grounds.
Passing through the garden, which smelled strongly of earth, and entering the main castle, a servant lighting candles in the hall hurried over with a towel. Taking it and roughly drying the moisture from his hair, Barkas asked a question.
“Where is the Grand Duchess?”
“Her Highness has not yet returned.”
Barkas paused and turned toward the servant.
“She went out?”
“I don’t believe she left the castle grounds. She mentioned going to the healing sorceress’s hut earlier today, so she is likely there….”
He frowned.
He had heard she visited the healing sorceress’s residence often, but since his return, he had never seen her stay away from the main palace for so long.
“Where exactly is the healing sorceress’s residence?”
“It is at the end of the rear garden, north of Raedgo Castle.”
Barkas immediately crossed the hall and exited through the back door.
Passing through a wide, rain-slicked clearing and a forest path shrouded in deep gray shadows, he reached the spring where they had reunited.
After staring briefly at the silver surface of the water dappled by rain, Barkas moved along the muddy path toward the castle walls.
Before long, a well-tended herb garden and a small stone building came into view. Stepping up to it, Barkas knocked on the door without hesitation. A calm voice drifted out shortly after.
“Come in.”
He pulled the handle immediately. The healing sorceress, who had been preparing medicine at a table, stood up in surprise.
“G-Grand Duke? What brings you here…?”
“I heard my wife was here.”
Barkas scanned the room slowly.
Inside the fairly spacious room were a work table, shelves stacked with hundreds of medicine bottles, and a drying rack hung with bundles of herbs, all neatly arranged.
As he surveyed them in turn, Barkas’s gaze stopped on a humble bed. Talia, dressed in a thin blue summer dress, was lying on her side, fast asleep.
After gazing down at her vulnerable form for a moment, his eyes moved to the book lying discarded by her head.
The title ‘Punishment’ was embossed in gold on the high-quality leather binding.
As Barkas picked it up and flipped through it, a crease formed between his brows. The book she had been reading was a memoir written by Elixir, a hero from the Empire’s founding era, who was said to have returned after seeing hell.
‘…Her taste in reading hasn’t changed a bit.’
She had spent her childhood reading books with dark themes, and it seemed that morbid habit remained even now that she was grown.
Reading a passage describing the miserable state of sinners fallen into purgatory, Barkas tossed the book into the hearth without hesitation.
Seeing the expensive ancient volume engulfed in flames, the healing sorceress let out a small shriek.
Barkas immediately shot her a warning look. The woman, looking aghast at the fireplace, quickly clamped her mouth shut.
He turned his attention back to Talia’s complexion. She was so deep in sleep that she didn’t move an inch, her breath coming in soft, even sighs.
“Did she take a sedative?”
“She said her legs ache particularly bad when it rains, so she took a somewhat strong painkiller,” the healing sorceress replied in a whisper.
After staring at her face for a long while, Barkas leaned down carefully and gathered her limp body into his arms.
“Where is the wolf?”
“K-Khan is….”
The woman looked flustered for a moment, wetting her dry lips before adding in a much calmer voice.
“She had him temporarily isolated in the kennel prepared at the detached palace.”
“The kennel?”
Barkas’s brow arched.
For the past few days, that wolf had refused to leave her side for even a moment. Talia, too, had been unusually devoted to the beast, so this sudden measure struck him as strange.
“Why did she suddenly decide that?”
“I… advised her that Khan’s recent excessive sensitivity seemed to be due to his protective instincts toward Her Highness going too far.”
Lowering her eyes, the healing sorceress continued cautiously.
“Above all, since Your Grace has returned, I suggested that Khan should slowly learn to spend time apart from Her Highness… and she seems to have decided to keep him separate, at least during the evenings.”
In that moment, a strange tension settled around Barkas’s mouth.
