With the evening glow at my back, I stepped out of the carriage and waited for the visitor to approach.
From the other side of the broad thoroughfare that had naturally formed through the encampment, a single man appeared.
Having ordered all the soldiers under his command to wait outside the camp, he strode toward me entirely alone.
Thump, thump, thump, thump. He advanced with such hearty, sprawling strides that any cheap floorboards would have creaked or given way beneath his feet.
The armored warrior, his face half-covered by a thick beard, marched straight up to me and threw himself flat against the ground with astonishing momentum.
"It has been far too long, my lord! Jerry Eisen at your service!"
"Mm, you seem in good spirits. Has it been about ten years since we last met face-to-face?"
Still prostrate, Jerry lifted only his head to answer.
"Yes, sir! It's been roughly ten years since the day you made a real man out of me!"
"I see. You may make yourself comfortable; it must be difficult to speak like that."
"Yes, sir!"
Giving the ground one final rub with his forehead, Jerry rose briskly to his feet.
He possessed an overwhelming presence.
Looking closely at him, his armor was visibly seasoned, covered in countless fine nicks and scrapes.
Though mostly hidden beneath his beard, a scar ran along his cheek—still a raw, vivid pink.
That single scar made it glaringly obvious that he was still fighting on the front lines to this day.
Combined with his massive physique, he exuded a tremendous presence—or rather, a thoroughly intimidating aura.
I figured a timid recruit might faint from a single glare of his.
"Come to think of it, you were stationed in this region, were you not?"
"Yes, sir! Stationed right here in the West for three straight years!"
"That is well and good, but what brings you here? Even as a Titleless General, you are still a general now. Leaving your post could cause problems, could it not?"
"I heard my lord was coming this way! If I missed this chance, who knows how many years it'd be till the next one, so I brought three gifts along with me!"
"Gifts?"
"Before that... Jerry Eisen, was it?"
Henry stepped forward from behind me, confronting Jerry with a furrowed brow and a displeased scowl.
"Just what is that manner of speech in the presence of His Majesty?"
"Ah, the Imperial Prince! Well, I really am sorry about that, but..."
Jerry scratched his head, looking utterly flustered as he replied.
"See, I was born a bandit. Ever since my lord took me in, I've just been bounced from one battlefield to the next, so I never learned the first thing about manners and etiquette. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're gonna say—'You're a general now, so learn them!' I get it, I really do! But if I've got time to learn that nonsense, I figure I'd be a whole lot more useful to my lord butchering even one more barbarian on the frontier, wouldn't I?"
"...There is a limit."
"It is fine."
"Your Majesty."
Henry turned to me with a mild look of reproach that practically said, You are being far too lenient.
"I permit it. We are in the middle of a military campaign to begin with; there is no point in fussing over etiquette."
"If Your Majesty says so..."
Even as he said it, Henry maintained a reluctant expression.
Henry had served as the Imperial Prince Minister of Military Affairs for a long time.
As head of the Ministry of Military Affairs, he had frequent contact with the generals who led the troops, so he was likely accustomed to rough-tempered men with crude manners. However, most who climbed all the way to the rank of general either possessed family connections or, as Jerry had put it, "learned them once they became a general."
Men like Jerry, who paid such things no mind whatsoever, were rare.
Usually, as a person's station rose, they had more to lose, and they acquired proper manners to safeguard their position. Yet Jerry had done nothing of the sort.
I found that somewhat amusing.
"More importantly, what are these gifts?"
"Right! Hey!! Bring them over, on the double!"
Jerry bellowed toward the unit he had left behind him.
It was a thunderous roar.
The soldiers quietly pitching tents nearby jumped in surprise, halting their work to look around.
Naturally, the shout reached Jerry's unit, and movement stirred on their end.
Before long, nearly ten soldiers marched over, effectively escorting five women.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, my lord!"
"Who are these people?"
"Yes, sir! I heard my lord brought a woman along, but keeping only one seemed far too lonely! So I rounded up some decent women from my jurisdiction and brought them over!"
"I see."
I gave a slight nod.
It was abrupt, but as Emperor—or rather, as a noble—this was hardly surprising.
Having women offered up to curry favor was an everyday occurrence; there was no reason to be shocked.
"Ah, of course, they all agreed to it! For instance, these two were extra mouths to feed in farming households, the one next to them is an apprentice from a brothel, this one was the poster girl for a diner that went under, and this one is... er, what was your story again?"
"M-My younger brother is getting married, so I was sold to pay for the wedding."
It was a bizarre scene: Jerry asking casually, and the young girl answering with trepidation.
"Right, right, that was it! Securing a bride for the youngest son is a big deal, so it's pretty common for the other kids—especially the girls—to be sold off for that. Doesn't make much sense to me, though."
"Ah, that is a common tale among farming households in the West. You could call it a custom of this region."
"Oh? You know about that, my lord?"
"Mm. When farming households in the East pass down their inheritance, they divide the land equally among all the sons; that is the origin of the term for foolishness, which literally means 'dividing the fields.' In the West, on the other hand, the youngest child inherits everything, so all the family's wealth is spent on them."
"Huh... But why the youngest? Isn't it usually the eldest son for that sort of thing?"
"The prevailing theory is that the youngest child is younger and can work the land for a longer time. By now, though, most places simply follow it out of tradition."
"Huh... You're incredible, my lord! You even knew about that?"
"Jerry Eisen, that is far too insolent!"
Henry, who had remained silent, finally lost his patience and snapped at him.
"Eh? Ahh! Right you are! My mistake! The conversation was just so interesting, it slipped out!"
Rebuked by Henry, Jerry seemed to realize he had truly crossed a line this time. Throwing himself flat against the dirt with tremendous force, he ground his forehead into the earth.
He had performed a vigorous prostration, but far from deciding whether to forgive him or not, I simply found the whole display thoroughly entertaining.
"It is fine. I do not mind."
"Understood!"
Jerry sprang back to his feet. Blood was oozing from his forehead, likely from grinding it so hard against the ground, but paying it no heed whatsoever, he pressed on.
"Ah, of course, I laid it all out for them properly, so rest easy, my lord! If you take a liking to them, that's grand! Even if you don't, as long as they serve you well during this campaign, I promised I'd look after them and their families for the rest of their lives!"
"That is quite lavish of you."
"Nah, it's nothing—ah! That's right! 'Lavish' just reminded me! I brought booze, too! Can't have women without some good liquor to go with them, after all!"
With that, Jerry prepared to bellow toward his unit once more.
If he shouted again, they would probably haul the alcohol over next, I thought with a quiet chuckle.
"Understood, understood. There is no need to line them up before me. Hand them over to the supply officers later."
"Understood!"
"Did this not cost a considerable sum? It must have been difficult to prepare all this on the stipend of a Titleless General."
At my question, Jerry looked at me with the most earnest expression he had shown all day and answered:
"The reason I'm standing here right now, the reason I get to live as a decent human being, is entirely thanks to my lord. If you hadn't opened a path for us that day, I'd be rotting away in some execution yard or deep in the mountains as fertilizer by now. So, when a chance to repay that debt finally rolls around, even if I have to sell the shirt off my back, it's time to step up, isn't it?"
"I merely offered you a path."
"Even so! Even so, you're our benefactor—no, our god!"
Jerry answered while looking straight into my eyes.
His unwavering gaze insisted that something like this doesn't even begin to repay the debt.
"Heh, you are a dutiful man. Very well, I shall accept the liquor. Take the women back with you. I already have a fine woman."
"Is that so?"
"She is the finest songstress in the capital—no, in the entire Empire."
"I see! Well, then these girls don't stand a chance!"
Jerry did not push the matter.
He had none of the overbearing pushiness common to such gestures, which made him easy to like.
"And what of the final gift?"
Henry spoke up abruptly.
Because I had continually taken Jerry's side, he asked with a slightly sullen edge.
A desire to hear it quickly and bring the conversation to an end was plain in his voice.
"...Ah, come to think of it, you did mention three gifts."
I gave a faint, wry smile.
Women, and liquor.
The "three" Jerry referred to meant three kinds of gifts, which meant one was still missing.
"Ah, that one will be just a little longer!"
"A little longer?"
"My voice won't reach all the way out there, after all... Sorry, my lord, just hold on for a sec—"
The moment Jerry spoke those words, it happened.
A sound like an explosion rumbled in the distance.
All of us turned toward the noise at once.
A mountain range rose to the north, and from beyond it, intermittent blasts echoed across the plains.
And then—the crimson glow of the evening sky deepened to a fiery blaze.
"What is that?"
"Heheh."
Jerry grinned triumphantly.
"Those insolent bastards who dare oppose my lord—I went ahead and had their supply depots burned to the ground!"
"—?!"
Jerry's boastful claim was a feat he had every right to brag about even more.
Henry, along with Neil, who had found no opening to join the conversation until now, stared in sheer astonishment at Jerry's words, their eyes locked on the northern sky where explosions continued to roar and flames raged on.