Chapter 19 — Debt
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
Gao Yang had no idea of the bold and thoroughly punchable notion taking shape in Rebecca's mind, but he did know that Viscount Andrew's protection of the Cecil domain's people could not possibly come free of charge. The age when a lord would defend his subjects to the death, when high and low watched over one another, when every soul gave selflessly to rebuild civilization—that age was long gone. Seven hundred years later, the Kingdom of Ansell had still not recovered the glory of the Gondor era, but where the arts of selfishness were concerned, the nobility had needed no teacher at all, and had maxed them out with effortless grace. There could be no doubt: from the very day the refugees of the Cecil domain entered Tansang Town, Rebecca had taken on a debt that had fallen from the sky.
But carrying that debt was still better than everyone being dead.
"The Cecil family will be grateful for your help," Gao Yang said, breaking the silence. "But what matters more right now is this disaster itself."
Viscount Andrew had noticed Gao Yang from the very beginning—the man seated between Rebecca and Heidi. He was deeply curious about this figure in ancient noble attire, a greatsword set beside him, his features stern and solemn. No such person existed among the noble circles Andrew knew. Yet from the deference with which Heidi and Rebecca treated this man, one thing could be judged with certainty: he was no ordinary man.
So when Gao Yang spoke, Andrew seized the moment to ask, "Forgive my boldness—I have been curious all this while. Who might you be, sir?"
"Ancestor of the Cecil family, pioneer among pioneers, one of the seven founding generals of Ansell, Grand Duke of the Southern Marches—Gao Yang Cecil," Heidi announced, springing to her feet, having long awaited this very question. Her face was utterly solemn. "You must have grown up hearing this name since childhood. He is the First Radiance of Dawn."
Gao Yang kept his face rigid, striving for the stern, awe-inspiring look of a man whose wrath was held in check, and gave a slight nod in time with Heidi's shameless overhyping. But at the final sentence he could not help but freeze, and quietly leaned toward Rebecca to ask, "What the hell is that last title supposed to be?"
Rebecca hastened to explain, "The posthumous title the founding king bestowed upon you after your death..."
Gao Yang was aghast. "...Couldn't that old chuunibyou have come up with something that at least sounds good?!"
As for Viscount Andrew, this meticulous and orthodox nobleman's first reaction upon hearing Heidi's words was to sit there utterly blank-faced.
Had this lady, after her family suffered catastrophe and she was frightened by monsters, cracked under too much mental strain and finally gone mad?
It was just as Gao Yang had thought from the start: unless one saw it with one's own eyes, no outsider would ever believe a tale of the Cecil family's Mystic Meridian Sect climbing out of a coffin. Even the worldly nobility and the erudite mages would never credit such a wild fantasy—though perhaps the illiterate common folk, their heads stuffed full of superstition, might swallow it whole.
That Andrew did not, immediately upon hearing Heidi's words, summon a servant to feed this lady her medicine was already a testament to his breeding.
"My lady, allow me to... er... allow me a moment to think," Andrew said, struggling to arrange his expression, apparently searching for some phrasing that might convey his feelings without being too rude, until at last he could not help but speak plainly. "I know you have suffered a nightmare beyond imagining, but to use such a fantastical tale to... isn't that going a bit too far?"