chapter 9
Ariletti finally managed to tear her eyes away from the Pane in front of her.
Across from her, Glen Hezate had been looking at her meaningfully for quite some time.
I’ve got more to say here!
“Uncle.”
“If you don’t call me ‘uncle,’ I’m not answering.”
“How are you supposed to cut off the princes’ heads when you don’t even have enough firewood to light a stove?”
“Cut off what?”
Glen looked utterly dumbfounded.
“Who on earth taught a child to say such awful things?”
Regardless, Ariletti’s mind was already spinning rapidly.
She didn’t even need much time before information about the Hezate territory began surfacing one by one.
During these snowstorms, the residents cannot leave their homes, but at the same time, outsiders cannot enter either—turning the entire territory into a formidable iron fortress.
It is already a freezing region, and when even the routes to the outside world are blocked, it becomes completely cut off—making it easy to freeze to death like fish in winter.
With no fertile land and no trading cities, the only assets Hezate has are its experienced knights and soldiers. The territory is maintained through the stipends earned by deploying them.
Conclusion:
Simply put, if their relationship with the imperial family breaks down, they would starve.
The golden chest their expedition team had desperately protected this time was also part of the annual imperial stipend.
However, the Hezate count’s house had supported the 3rd Prince instead of the 1st or 2nd, drawing suspicion and pressure from the other princes.
The one who had argued that “even if the territory is remote and poor, Hezate’s military power cannot be ignored” was none other than Ariletti herself.
Because of that, Hezate had always been among the first targets for elimination by the princes.
But judging from this recent ambush, even beyond Ariletti’s advice, it was clear that the First Prince’s faction had long been wary of Hezate.
“Aril, you’re drooling.”
“Why did you choose the 3rd Prince?”
Glen’s faint smile faded slightly.
“How do you even know that?”
“It’s obvious.”
It wasn’t hard to infer.
If Hezate had done nothing, there would be no reason for the Empress to send even a knight commander just to eliminate him, the young heir.
Something must have been exchanged between Glen Hezate and the 3rd Prince, Rassian Federka, back in the imperial capital. And in the past as well, Hezate had reached out to the 3rd Prince around this time.
“And three years later, they fully support Rassian.”
Even in her past life, it had been an incomprehensible suicidal move.
“…A sage who sees the future? No, that can’t be. There can’t be two sages with the same power.”
“Pardon?”
“…No. Never mind.”
Glen muttered suspiciously to himself and shrugged.
“Well, to answer you, it’s probably similar to why I picked you up.”
“……”
“If I ignore a child in danger, I get punished.”
Ariletti stared at the young man wiping her mouth with a napkin.
His still-youthful face overlapped with the image of a man she knew well.
The much more solid and imposing border margrave from her past.
My past.
But now—a future that no longer existed.
“My lord used to look at me with those same eyes. Kids who haven’t even dried the blood on their heads… ridiculous.”
“What do you mean? Stop talking nonsense. If you’re going to kill me, do it now. This is your only chance!”
“Really? Then go.”
“…What?”
“Run far away. Don’t look back. Never return to the Bertel Imperial Family. Understand?”
“……”
“Go find your life, Ariletti.”
At the memory, irritation flared up suddenly.
As always, he saved children in danger, and because of that you kept losing, you foolish man.
Ariletti muttered fiercely, forgetting even to act like a child.
“Why don’t you think? That’s why you let me go back then, you hopeless uncle.”
If you had killed me then, or at least captured me, no one knows how things would have turned out.
Glen Hezate was far too soft-hearted.
Because of that, he could never win.
Not even qualify for a duel challenge. Just like his first life.
And even if he somehow reached a dueling stage, he would collapse helplessly. Just like his second life.
I don’t want you to die so pointlessly.
“You would’ve been annihilated at Gringen Church if I hadn’t been there. I don’t have any dependents, so if I die, it ends with me. But Roel has three children. Tanesha even lives with her grandmother.”
Uncle Dencken said it too. Everyone has people they need to protect.
Ariletti slammed her fork into the Pane.
“This won’t work anymore. We need a plan.”
“A plan? A plan for what?”
A plan to prevent total destruction, obviously!
The core problem of this hopeless territory began with the snowstorms outside.
A natural disaster that sealed off every possible route out.
“If there’s no road… then we make one.”
If something exists, you find it.
And if it doesn’t exist, you create it.
That was another of Ariletti’s principles.
Glen observed the child glaring at him with burning eyes, finding her fascinating.
So she has this side too?
The child who had looked like she wanted to drown in the Pane just moments ago, drooling and lifeless, suddenly turned serious. Her gaze deepened as she looked at him.
And now it felt like she was looking at the most hopeless fool in the world.
“Like a shy kitten… or sometimes like an eighty-year-old elder.”
The emotions swirling in those teal eyes were not something a five-year-old should have.
Ariletti chewed her pasta thoroughly, even eating the bread lid and the bowl with determination.
Before long, her stomach puffed up, and she hopped down from the chair.
“Follow me.”
“Where to?”
“To earn my meal.”
“If you call me uncle, I’ll follow you, Sage-nim.”
Am I really doing this for my own sake?
Ariletti made a disgusted face, as if she had bitten something foul. Glen burst into bright laughter. Her emotions were written all over her face—adorably so.
At times like this, she felt like a sage… and at times, not at all.
If she really was the Sage of the White Forest, then she absolutely had to be kept in Hezate.
Until a hundred years ago, sages had often been exploited and discarded cruelly.
Glen remembered the child trembling under interrogation, her thin shoulders shaking.
Too young to bear the greed of the world.
To Glen, a child should be a child.
He had told the 3rd Prince—who had been unnaturally withdrawn for his age—that he could call for help if needed, and he had not been able to ignore the baby who looked like she would die at any moment.
Those lonely eyes.
Maybe even his long-lost younger sibling—whose face, name, and even gender he didn’t know—might have had eyes like that.
“You must always remain neutral, Glen. Always stand one step back from the world. Never interfere in matters that can shift fate. Otherwise, you will surely pay the price…”
“Well, Mother… even if there is a price someday, I’d still like to live doing what is right.”
So maybe I should play along with this so-called Sage-nim.
The young man, having quickly hidden his lonely expression, followed after Ariletti as she trotted ahead.