SML Ch 21

Chapter 21

A Story at Rest (1)

After parting ways with Reynald at the smithy, Heide let out a grunt as he climbed the stairs. It was only from the first to the third floor, yet his left knee creaked slightly with each step.

Ever since the lord had arrived, Heide had been moving around more than usual, and his leg had started acting up recently. He felt fine walking normally, but every time he climbed stairs, an uncomfortable twinge would jab at his knee.

Entering the office on the third floor, Heide patted his knee a few times. Although it had been quite some time since the lord came to this domain, the office remained under Heide’s care, since the lord hardly used it at all.

Twenty-three years ago, when Heide was still a child, the previous lord had practically lived holed up in the office. He would grumble about how he couldn’t possibly go outside with so many monsters around, and why the security force of the domain was so utterly incompetent. He was the kind of man who could never quite accept that the problem wasn’t with the guards, but that there were simply too many monsters.

Still, at his core, he had a good heart. During the spring famine, he would go to nearby domains and bow his head if necessary to borrow food, so his overall reputation had been rather favorable. Even though, ironically, he died young despite such a good reputation.

‘Come to think of it, the current lord really is an unusual one…’

As he cleaned the office, Heide thought back to the red-haired man who had suddenly descended upon the domain not too long ago.

The clueless youngsters who didn’t understand what a lord was seemed to prefer calling him “old man,” but in Heide’s eyes, the lord didn’t look old at all. The young men in this village hadn’t seen many elderly men, so they had a tendency to call anyone slightly older than them an old man by default.

In reality, the man probably belonged to the prime age range for knights—moreover, he was incredibly skilled. On the day of his arrival, he’d broken through a wyvern nest without even a single guard accompanying him, and dragged five members of the security force back with him. To call him merely “fit” was an understatement.

He was eccentric, yes, but his temperament wasn’t foul. In fact, his nature was good, just in a different way from the previous lord. Whereas the former lord had borrowed food for the people during the spring famine, this lord led the guards straight into a ratman village and stole food himself. Grain raids were a yearly occurrence, sure, but it was the first time Heide had ever seen a lord personally take part.

Heide wondered if lords of other domains also acted like that. He tilted his head, but in truth, the only lords he knew were the previous one and a few from neighboring regions, so he had little basis for comparison. If he had to say, though, the current lord did seem a bit more unusual.

‘Anyway, it’s getting rather noisy outside.’

Heide flung open the office window and poked his head out. A ruckus could be heard from the training ground in the distance, and as he looked closer, he saw a large crowd gathered along its edge. In the center, two people wielding wooden swords were sparring.

Was it Alex? If it was someone who liked sparring, then it was probably Alex. Narrowing his eyes, Heide noticed that one of the fighters had red hair. It was too far to make out the face, but there was only one person in the entire domain with such a vivid red mane.

‘Told you he’s an odd one.’

The other man, judging by his size, appeared to be Volant. Heide found himself wondering who would win the duel—Volant or the lord—but for now, he decided to return to tending the office. Truthfully, there wasn’t much to manage. Cleaning the interior and checking the magical transmission scroll on the desk would suffice.

Heide approached the desk and inspected the magical transmission scroll. Though it looked like a thin metal plate, this scroll was nearly several centuries old and still functioned without issue. It was mainly used to receive communications from the central government, and it was thanks to this very scroll that Heide had received word about the lord’s arrival.

This domain was so remote and monster-infested that without such a scroll, communicating with the outside world would’ve been extremely difficult. Especially in winter, when wyverns were on a rampage—any messengers sent during that time had a high chance of getting devoured. The fact that the current lord had casually made it through a wyvern horde made him quite an exception.

‘Huh? Wait a minute… A new message?’

The scroll’s edge glowed with a soft blue light, indicating that a new letter had arrived. Heide reached out to touch it. The previously black metal plate turned white like paper, and words began to inscribe themselves upon it.

Since hardly anyone in the domain could read—apart from Heide and Alex—it naturally fell to Heide to check the messages. But this was strange. It wasn’t tax season, so why had a new message suddenly arrived? Did something happen to the new lord? With such thoughts swirling in his head, Heide began to read the text.

And then—

‘……?’

He stared at the scroll for a long while. Unlike the usual messages, this one was written in a refined, elegant script, but the contents were baffling. What is this? Muttering to himself, Heide reread the message several times.

[It was my fault. In hindsight, it was too much of a cruel joke. Are you very upset? Is that why you haven’t written back?]

Wait—who even are you? Heide wanted to shout that aloud but held back and read on. As he continued staring at the scroll, the words disappeared and were replaced by a second message. It seemed more letters were arriving in succession.

[Please forgive my carelessness and rudeness, Rey. Of course, forgiveness cannot be demanded, but I ask you—considering our past bond—won’t you please come back?]

[Without you by my side, something always feels missing. I can’t put my mind at ease. I keep worrying that something might’ve happened to you.]

[Are you safe? Could it be that living in unfamiliar conditions has harmed your health? If your body suffers, I fear my heart will suffer greatly as well.]

As he stared blankly at these unsigned letters, Heide found himself at a complete loss as to how to respond. He could glean only two things from these messages: the person who wrote them must be of fairly high status, and they were desperately searching for someone named “Rey.”

Naturally, no one in this domain bore the name Rey, and Heide had no idea whom the sender was referring to. He was certain that the message had been misdelivered—intended for a different domain. Such mix-ups happened from time to time.

Once a year, give or take, these kinds of miscommunications occurred. It made sense to assume this year’s message had simply landed in the wrong place again. Normally, this scroll was used for things like tax notices (not that they had enough food to pay any taxes to the capital) or official documents (usually irrelevant to this remote domain). This sort of personal message was decidedly out of place.

More importantly, who was using a high-grade magical transmission scroll—typically reserved for capital officials—to send something so personal? Heide figured he’d eventually have to inform the lord about the letter and lifted his hand from the scroll. The text vanished from the surface, and the scroll returned to its usual black metallic form.

‘Come to think of it, what was the lord’s name again? Middle… Middleton, wasn’t it?’

Lord Middleton. Just in case he ever needed to refer to him, Heide had at least memorized the surname. There was no real reason to remember the first name, as it wasn’t like Heide would ever have cause to call him by it. Ordinary citizens never addressed a lord by their given name, after all.

Could it be that the lord’s name was Rey? Now that he thought about it, the name did sound vaguely similar. Perhaps that letter was actually addressed to the lord, someone desperately searching for him… Heide pondered that for a brief moment, glancing back toward the training ground—only to see Volant getting thoroughly beaten. He shook his head.

Whoever was writing those letters clearly didn’t know who they were dealing with. The idea that someone would send such sentimental lines to that nigh-invincible lord was hard to believe. “Could it be that the unfamiliar environment has harmed your health?” What nonsense—he was still actively knocking the young men around as they spoke.

‘And if the letter really was meant for the lord, wouldn’t it have at least had the recipient’s name properly listed? I’ll still mention it to him, but…’

Favoring the theory that the letter was simply sent to the wrong domain, Heide stood up from his seat. But just as he was about to go inform Reynald about the misdelivered message, a few people who had been busy milling flour spotted him and their eyes lit up.

Caught by the villagers, Heide was immediately roped into helping with their chores. The letter didn’t seem particularly urgent anyway—he could always deliver the news when he had a bit more free time. Lost in thought, Heide busied himself helping out with this and that at the mill.

And then, by the time the sun had set and all the work was done, he had completely forgotten about the existence of the letter.