Editing Tales of Leo Attiel:Volume2 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 2===


Once Hayden had left the hall and everyone gathered around Leo had satisfied their curiosity about him, the atmosphere at the banquet turned a little dull. At least for the time being, the threat that might have befallen them at any time had passed by, and it seemed that they would be able to continue enjoying the peaceful days they had known until now, and so all of those there started to spend their time how they best pleased: flirting with the women they had an eye on, talking business, singing songs or dancing for pleasure.

Sovereign-Prince Magrid showed signs of leaving, so everyone spoke words of salutation and were about to see him off, when a commotion that was not a minor one erupted.

When turned to look at the people involved, Leo’s eyes narrowed.

''How interesting'', he thought.

Of the two of them, one was a man who, even among the other vassal lords, inevitably attracted the eye thanks to the luxurious clothes, sparkling ornaments and precious metals that he wore, while one glance at the other was enough to see that the faded clothes he had on were his best suit, which he seemed to have hurriedly climbed into.

In terms of appearance, the two were complete opposites, but both were domain lords with castles to the south of Tiwana, the capital city, and were nobles who were referred to as vassal lords of hereditary fiefs. Even Leo, who had been away from Atall for so long, remembered their names and faces.

The first was Darren Actica.

More than ten years ago, sparks had flown when two vassal lords had been embroiled in a dispute over a vein of dragonbone, and Darren, who had been one of those concerned, had emerged victorious. Moreover, because the then sovereign-prince had been unable to arbitrate the dispute, a great many of the nobles had criticised him for his ‘lack of ability’, which had forced him to hand over the throne to the then prince, Magrid. The key figure in ousting the previous ruler had again been Darren.

From there on, the power of the ruling princely house weakened, while that of the vassal lords was strengthened. And among them, Darren was the one who had become the most influential of them all.

The other man was Savan Roux.

He possessed a fort and a small territory at the southwest border. His clothing was shabby and his face pallid, in sharp contrast to Darren’s glowing complexion. Although Savan could not have been older than his mid-fifties, his hair was already completely grey. He should have retired from the position of castle lord a long time ago.

Savan edged up to Darren to say something, then, the next moment, seemed about to move towards Sovereign-Prince Magrid.

“Wait!” This time, it was Darren who sharply called out as he blocked Savan’s way. “What are you planning on saying? Are you going to inflict upon His Majesty the same baseless rumours that you just told me?”

“What ‘baseless rumours’?” Savan shook his grey head. “How dare you say that? Pull your scoundrels out of my territory right now!”

He was as incandescent with anger as a fireball, while Darren turned towards the sovereign-prince, who seemed about to stop, as though to quickly ward him off.

“I beg a thousand pardons. This is nothing that you should be disturbing yourself over, Your Majesty.”

He spoke courteously, but to Leo, it looked as though the sharp glint from Darren’s eyes was urging the sovereign-prince to leave as quickly as possible. 

Although Magrid’s expression turned conflicted for a moment, he nodded. “Well, in that case...” he said and left the hall, accompanied by his wife and several pages,

“Please wait!”

Savan cried out even so, but Darren once again stood in his way. Savan agitatedly shoved him in the chest, at which point the onlooking crowd starting clamouring in excitement at the prospect of an interesting development. Darren, however, calmly fixed his dishevelled clothing and shrugged his fleshy shoulders.

“This is very distressing, Lord Savan. You have defended this country for many long years, and I respect for you for that. But it is clear how you intend to bring me down – well, to put it simply, this vulgar gossip sprung up very quickly...”

“Shut up, you damn whelp,” he was gasping and wheezing as he thrust a finger towards Darren. “You manipulate the ruler like a puppet with your hundreds of lies and your thousand of flowery words. You’re the very incarnation of the two-faced, country-destroying devil. The guardian deity Lévi-Rahan’s scissors made from a melted horseshoe should reveal your two tongues and your three tails, and expose your real nature.”

“You’ve gone too far!”

Previously poised and relaxed, Darren now flared up angrily. “The two-faced devil”, “scissors made from a melted horseshoe” and so on were the greatest possible insults in those lands. They originated from myths but, since they were very old-fashioned expressions, the younger generations barely used them.

“Take that back!”

“Oh, it looks like even a devil can’t stand to have their own actions criticised.”

“You’re still saying that!”

Now that both of them were shouting, the other vassal lords and nobles finally intervened. Some time later, the two of them had been pulled apart and were on the point of leaving the hall through separate exits, but Leo was right ahead in the direction that Savan was taking. Or rather, Leo had put himself there, making it look like nothing more than coincidence. The grey-haired rural domain lord glared at him, anger blazing in his eyes. Still breathing violently, he passed by Leo without a single word of greeting.



Only a few people were left in the hall after that, involved in long conversations, stuffing left-over food in bags, or, for the lovers, exchanging promises of secret rendez-vous. Leo emerged from the narrow corridor leading to a balcony from the hall’s mezzanine floor. Florrie Anglatt walked beside him

“You must have been surprised,” he said nervously, and Florrie nodded silently. 

She still hadn’t spoken since Leo had made his declaration. Whenever their eyes had met in the hall, she had quickly looked down, her face as red as if it were on fire.

“I was thinking of talking to you about at some point, when I got a chance,” Leo’s explanation was equally awkward. Stuttering repeatedly over his words, he spoke of his emotions. “Do you remember what I said that time – the night we were being chased down by Allion’s soldiers? That for me, whether in Allion or in Atall, wherever it is that you're laughing and singing is where I can laugh too. My feelings have been set since a long time ago.”

''It’s not a lie'', thought Leo. 

At the very least, it was true that his heart had strongly rebelled against it when he realised that Hayden was probably reaching to grasp hold of Florrie. He had also thought at that moment that ''he'' should be the one standing beside her, with his hand on her shoulder. 

''Fate has decreed that will definitely be the case one day . It just happened a bit sooner than I expected''. Leo transposed his feelings into those words.

He peered at Florrie, who was still silent.

“Are you against it?” he asked. “If you’re against the idea, then there’s no helping it. Tomorrow, I’ll talk to my father and we can forget about it. You can even go back to Allion with Sir Hayden on that very same day. Everyone at court will laugh at the pathetic prince for the rest of all time. But don’t worry, it’s fine. You don’t need to feel even the smallest twinge of pain over it.”

“Leo, you…” Florrie opened her eyes wide and her mouth fell open in surprise. It was as though the smiling mask she had constantly been wearing in the hall was crumbling away. “Are you threatening me?”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

“You're a coward.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” seeing Leo avoiding the issue, Florrie looked as though she gave up.

“Could you ask me once more? ‘Florrie, are you against it?’”

“You’re not against it?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Florrie threw out her chest, imitating Leo’s voice and facial expression.

The two of them broke into chuckles. Then Florrie, her face bright red, said “I’m… not against it,” in a voice that had almost faded to nothing.
[[Image: Leo_Attiel_Den_v02_029.png|thumb]]
“…anyway, if I go back to Allion like this, I would probably never see you again.”

“When Florrie isn’t by my side, I cry from loneliness.”

“Honestly,” Florrie stared wide-eyed at him again. “You're hopeless without me. It’s only been a few days that I haven’t taken care of it, and that beautiful hair has already turned into this.”

Florrie touched Leo’s hair, which was roughly bunched up behind the back of his head.

“There wasn’t anyone making a fuss about my hair, and since it was just in the way, I was thinking of cutting it short. Without you, Florrie, this hair only has a few days left. Poor thing,” Leo softly placed his hand over hers, which was still touching his hair. “It seems that the young lady who loved you so much is heartlessly going to abandon you and go home. Isn’t there anything you, O my hair, wants to say?”

“Are you planning on holding your own hair hostage this time?”

Afterwards, they talked endlessly, mostly about stories of their time in Allion. About the secret hideout hut they had made out of hay, about going fishing at the pond, and also about the time they had saved money without the adults knowing, and then slipped past those adults’ surveillance and gone out shopping in the town.

“Back then, you were the scarediest, Leo. ‘Look, that vendor on the street corner, doesn’t he look like one of the soldiers at the castle? He’s definitely in disguise and keeping watch on us. Let’s take a different road. Ah, wait… the women down that way – I’m sure I’ve seen them in the kitchens’…”

“I wasn’t frightened,” Leo responded indignantly. “It was a case of being cautious and wary. It’s essential when protecting yourself and the one you care for. That’s something that both Walter and Jack are missing; they’ll definitely never be called heroes.”

Florrie giggled and Leo burst out laughing in turn.

Encased in their iron baskets, the fires were still blazing in the courtyard. The time the two of them spent talking as they looked down on that line of lights reminded Leo of living in Allion. From start to last, the two talked only of past events.

“Father,” Florrie let drop a single word. “What would Father say if he could hear us?”

The unchangeable past had suddenly been caught up by the shadow of the future. The signs of change were impossible to predict, and so went hand-in-hand with unease. For just a second, Leo did not know what to say.

“He would be happy. Or then again, maybe he’d come after me with a sword. While shouting something like: ‘if you want to take my daughter, you’ll have to take my head first’.”

He laughed it off as a joke, and Florrie also let herself be lured into smiling.

“I wonder who I should support in that case? I don’t want either you or Father to be hurt.”

“It’s fine. It’ll just mean going easy.”

“Father will have to, you mean?”

“Hey! Even I’m stronger than I look.”

The fires in the courtyard started petering out one after another. Before long, Florrie, accompanied by several ladies’ maids, left the balcony. He wished her goodnight and watched her leave, while thinking, ''that girl and I are going to get married?'' Strong and sweet emotions welled up within him. It seemed unreal.

A memory resurfaced of playing house when he was very young – long before he had been sent to Allion. He had chosen one from among the daughters of the palace servants to play the part of the bride, and they had spent all day pretending to be a married couple. He smiled crookedly, but it quickly vanished.

As though replacing Florrie, Percy Leegan appeared on the balcony.

“Have you, by any chance, been waiting for me all this time?” Leo asked when he saw him. Percy nodded with a calm expression.

“I did not want to disturb your time with the young lady. Please do not worry, I was not eavesdropping.”

“It’s fine since it’s you. You helped me out back there.”

Leo thanked him for how, when he had announced his betrothal to Florrie, Percy lent him a hand by saying that “your relationship will mean that relations between the two countries will grow even warmer.”

“It was impertinent of me, but I am honoured if it was of help to you,” Percy gave a slight bow. “Although this may be arrogant of me, I feel that it was through a mysterious connection that I met Your Highness and the young lady in the mountains. Your marriage would fill me with joy, but…”

Percy was worried about how abrupt the prince’s actions appeared to him. Percy had spoken to him directly at the banquet, but judging from his state at that time, it was hard to believe that the prince had been intending to announce his engagement from the start.

''What’s up with the timing?''

It was just after Florrie Anglatt had declared that she would return to Allion, so it was possible to view as the impetuosity of youth succumbing to the pain of separation.
However –

“I don’t know anything much about it, but when everyone was swept up in that celebratory mood, only Hayden went white. Was that really alright?”

When Percy said that, the expression on Leo’s face was exactly the same as if a person passing him in the street had suddenly sprinkled purifying salt over him. The next moment, he unintentionally let out a laugh.

“Not only are you a master at the spear, Percy, but you’re also outstandingly sharp.”

“I didn’t want to barge in again since that would also have been impertinent, but…”

“It’s fine.”

Still, even though he said that, Leo did not explain anything about Hayden and Florrie. Percy did not press him for a answer as he was still unsure about what his distance was with the second prince. And while he was hesitating, Leo changed the subject entirely.

“You arrived just at the right time. I was curious about the commotion earlier. Do you know what’s going on between Savan and Darren?”

This too was abrupt.  ''Oh?'' Percy seemed to say as he raised his eyebrows for a second, but he answered immediately afterwards,
“As I was also somewhat curious, I asked a few people about it. Apparently, marauders have appeared in Lord Savan’s territory and have laid waste around a quarry there. It seems as though Lord Savan believes that it was Lord Darren’s doing.”

“The Leegan House’s hero is also quick of ear,” Leo smiled at Percy’s ready answer. “…And? How credible do you think that rumour is?”

“I don’t have enough grounds to form a judgement, but the vassals and retainers are saying it's ten to one that what Lord Savan says is true.”

“Why?”

“Lord Darren frequently talks about how he wants to build a new castle in his territory. And Lord Savan’s domains have an excellent quarry. For a long while now, Lord Darren has been approaching Lord Savan about the idea of sharing ownership of it, in exchange for which, he would send soldiers to help with ensuring security at the border.”

“And Savan keeps refusing?”

“Aye. Well, he does not seem very fond of Lord Darren.”

There was of course a reason for that. During the war, seven years ago, Savan Roux’s lands were the only ones to have been invaded by Allion. Shazarn, the main instigators behind the war, had lost their fortress, and Atall’s troops had already withdrawn, but Allion had probably reasoned that ‘we need to make our opponents fully understand the difference in power.’ The border fortresses held by Savan’s retainers were all burned down one after another, and Allion’s army got close to his castle town. Savan repeatedly requested reinforcements to Darren, who was on standby to his rear, but Darren came up with one reason after another for not responding to the appeal.

No doubt he had realised that Allion did not intend to utterly annihilate Atall, and that this was no more than their making a show of power to instill fear. In which case, there was no need to desperately defend the country to the death. Darren must have decided that rather than wasting soldiers and money, it would be better to firmly shut the gates of his own castle, and wait for the storm to pass.

With the brunt of Allion’s attack turned towards him, however, Savan had no way of protecting his people other than to frantically try to stop Allion’s invasion.

“…The result was that Allion pulled back even though Lord Savan’s castle was right before their eyes, but both of Lord Savan’s sons died during the fighting.”

After a short pause, Leo nodded. “I see.”

He remembered the glance that Savan had sent his way when passing him by. That anger had not been directly solely at Darren.

Leo Attiel descended back down to the hall in which all activity had almost entirely died out. It was here that, today, he had stood isolated and friendless, that he had approached the vassal lords in order to try out his own ‘power’, that he had trembled in fear of Hayden Swift, and that he had declared his betrothal to Florrie Anglatt.
The past no longer existed here. What there was, or better said, what Leo needed to be looking towards, were the ‘changes’ of the future.