MTO C78

Chapter 78

He thought he was wandering aimlessly, but when he stopped walking, he found himself before the underground prison where the eagles were confined. Kaidan paused at the door, hesitant, then at last stepped inside with quiet steps.

The first thing to greet him was the sound of beating wings. When he lit a torch, the massive round cage holding dozens of black eagles revealed itself. Once rulers of the cold skies, they now sat shackled beneath a dark ceiling, waiting only for someone to bring food.

Kaidan approached the iron bars. A few of the eagles flapped their wings, but most simply sat still, staring back at him. Even in their captivity, the majestic predators of the snowy plains did not lower their heads. Kaidan found himself unable to avert his eyes from their piercing golden gaze.

Michel had said he had never given the order to kill the black eagles, but Kaidan thought that imprisoning them was little different. Without the sky to fly in, the eagles would waste away and die. They were creatures born for freedom. Perhaps locking them away indefinitely was crueler than killing them outright.

Yet, he could not release them now. It was his duty to rid his domain of all hidden seeds of danger. Until he found a method to control the eagles, keeping them caged was the best option.

“Taming a black eagle completely is, in truth, impossible. They are the kings of birds. And kings never bow their heads to another.”

Those were words spoken by someone long ago. At that time, Kaidan had been little more than a boy, just beginning his sword training. His master had told him that to learn the swordsmanship of House Eglence, he would first need to learn how to communicate with the black eagles.

“In simple terms, young master, you are to make an alliance with them. Neither side is greater or lesser. You live helping one another where each is lacking.”

Blowing his whistle to summon the eagles, the master had looked dazzling in Kaidan’s young eyes. Once, Kaidan himself had felt pride and affection for those black eagles, the very symbol of his house. As a child, he had even dreamed of one day riding alongside them to vanquish the monsters of the north. It was the fanciful dream of a boy.

But in the end, Kaidan had never once fought in unison with them. He left Eglence Castle, and instead learned how to fight on his own, without eagles at his side. In a sense, it turned out for the better—Eglence’s sword had long since rusted.

When Kaidan returned to Valois, the Eglence order of knights he had once admired as a child lay in ruins, like a ship torn open by an iceberg. His master who had once lectured him on swordsmanship had been mercilessly defeated by the Black Knights, struck with such a deep wound to his shoulder that he could no longer properly grip a sword.

Kaidan had restored peace to the castle with no one’s help but his own. The Black Knights, fragments of an old nightmare, had proven laughably weak. It was pitiful, even shameful, that the Eglence knights had surrendered the castle so readily to such opponents.

Yet he had not driven them out. Just as the people of Valois had suffered for so long, Kaidan believed the decline of the knights was partly his fault as well, born of his own neglect. He wished to grant them, at least, the chance to retain their honor as knights until the end.

It was for that reason he had not told Jared the full truth. There was no need for him to know his comrades had disgraced themselves.

“Yes, I know it well. His Grace the Duke of Eglence. The great man who, after twelve years, returned to his homeland only to drive out all his knights! And now, dissatisfied even with that, would you slaughter the eagles too? Who will you cast out next before you are content?”

But had Kaidan known Jared would say such words before the saint, he would have cast him out sooner. A shame long forgotten gripped his body once more. Yet the shame that normally pressed him with guilt transformed, that day, into fury. He had not known how painful it could be to have his sins laid bare before someone pure and righteous.

Recalling that day again, his fists clenched of their own accord. And yet, he let the tension go.

It was the past. The knight who had sneered and found fault with his every deed was gone from the castle.

The hollow strength of the old Eglence order had already been exposed for all to see. There was no need to cling to man-eating eagles that would only harm people. A house that used the rose as its crest did not mean one must fight clad in thorns.

Kaidan would make Valois into a land unlike before, a place where people could truly live. To do so, the Eglence order had to change as well.

When spring came, he would send the eagles back into the mountains.

And they would never be called again.

In time, all things changed. His father, who once seemed fated to rule the land forever, met a miserable end. And Kaidan, who had sworn to never return north until his dying day, remained now in Eglence Castle by his own choice.

“Do not forget—along with these eagles, House Woolsley will always protect the north at House Eglence’s side. When this one dies, its child will remain. And when I die, my children will remain by your side until the end.”

There was no reason for disappointment or regret when a liar broke their promise.

“They’re alive. Truly. All of them are alive, he said.”

“What if the door doesn’t open?”

“Well… no, it will.”

Kaidan was about to leave the bars behind when he heard faint voices from outside the door. They were far too young to belong to soldiers charged with caring for the eagles.

“See? It opened—”

The door creaked, and in tumbled a little bundle of red fur. It was one of the children from the orphanage that the saint cared for.

The smile froze on the child’s face as his eyes met Kaidan’s, and he turned pale as death. Another red-haired bundle following close behind smacked right into him.

“Ow! Why did you stop so—ah!”

The second boy, too, gasped sharply when he caught sight of Kaidan. They were nearly identical, as if cast from the same mold.

As Kaidan stepped toward them, they shrieked in terror and clung tightly to each other. He stopped where he was, unable to advance further. Seeing no one else follow them in, he realized the children must have slipped away on their own. This was despite his strict instructions that the knights keep watch to ensure their safety. The underground prison was no place for children to wander.

“How did you get here?”

He spoke from a distance, but the boys stood frozen as if turned to stone. They didn’t so much as blink, let alone reply.

“Answer me.”

“I… I’m sorry….”

When pressed again, the first boy hunched his neck like a turtle and stammered an apology. It wasn’t the answer Kaidan sought.

The other, too, cowered with his shoulders hunched, but soon something caught his eye. His gaze grew wide and fixed upon Kaidan’s back.

What is it?

At that instant, the boy behind suddenly darted forward.

“Y-you mustn’t kill the eagles!”

“What?”

“Please don’t kill them! It—it doesn’t hurt anymore. I’m all better now.”

The boy raised his hand and swept back his bangs, revealing his forehead. From brow to temple stretched a ridged scar, not yet faded. He was the very boy who had been attacked by an eagle.

“Please.”

Visibly trembling, he refused to back away. His large red eyes brimmed with desperate conviction. His brother quickly rushed up beside him as if to shield him, face twisted as if about to cry but standing boldly nonetheless.

Kaidan hesitated. He was certain he had heard this boy’s name from the saint.

Yes…

“Max.”

At the sound of his name, the boy with the scar twitched. Kaidan bent down low, meeting his gaze. There was something he needed to ask.

“What happened before the eagle attacked you?”

Not once had there been an incident within Eglence Castle involving a black eagle. They were fierce enough to fight monsters, but toward humans they were ever friendly. In the hazy memories of his childhood, whenever Kaidan pestered them, the eagles chose to fly far away instead of turning on him.

So when he heard that an eagle had attacked the boy, he had felt not surprise but doubt. In the end, he concluded it must simply be a change in their nature over time—but that vague unease in his chest had never left him.

“Tell me honestly. The lives of the eagles depend on your answer.”

Max’s large eyes rippled faintly. He opened and closed his lips, bit them, then tried again. Kaidan waited patiently for his reply.

“I… I was trying to take out the bone.”

At length, Max finally whispered. His words were too incomplete to grasp at once.

“What?”

“In the meat… there was a bone. If you swallow it, you’ll choke and can’t breathe. I was trying to pull it out… b-but the eagle thought I was stealing its food and—it came at me.”

As if that was all he had to say, Max glanced up at Kaidan. With how tense he was, his breathing came fast and ragged.

Now Kaidan understood. That day, Max had reached for the piece of meat in order to remove the bone, and the eagle—caught up in its meal—had mistaken his hand as trying to snatch it away.

Or perhaps it had not even been an attack, but simply a misjudged peck while eating. For the black eagles of House Eglence did not attack humans.