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Frontier Lord Chapter 025: A visit from Casdekus, part 2

Chapter 025: A visit from Casdekus, part 2

Not long after Camarotts’s hurried departure, something came from the same direction… something that made me question whether my eyes were working. I heard wooden wheels clattering and women singing as a large bed steadily approached us.

A sight that would have made anyone look twice.

Perhaps it was not an actual bed, but rather a carriage constructed by means of attaching wheels to a bed frame. It was pulled by four horses.

Is it a bed… or a carriage? A bed-carriage, maybe?

A see-through piece of white cloth hanging from the rafters made an impressive ceiling for the bed-carriage. The bed itself, on which many cushions, colourful flower petals and a pillow were scattered, was also covered in a white duvet.

Amidst all that stuff was possibly none other than Elden Casdekus — a rotund character who had sunk rather deep into the bedding. I made out the silhouettes of around ten women surrounding him. Each woman wore a loose, white dress. Their heads were wrapped in white cloth which covered everything except their eyes. The women fed and fanned Casdekus, attending to his every need as they sang. I had already heard of his numerous female attendants… but to see them in person was truly something else.

This was my first impression of Elden Casdekus as the bed-carriage drew steadily closer:

A young-looking man, fifteen to sixteen years of age. If one looked solely at his face, there was no objection that he looked like a ladies’ man. His short, brown hair was uniquely styled. His round frame was clothed in white fabric, around which he had draped another piece of cloth decorated with symbols reminiscent of the sun.

Riding next to the bed-carriage was Camarotts, accompanied by five female guards clad in armor and toting swords and spears. When I saw that even his guards were female, my reaction was an equal mixture of surprise and ‘Seriously?’

I then heard Aruna, who was still hidden from sight, whisper into my ear.

That pot-bellied man is a strong blue. The women surrounding him are either white or light blue, but there are no reds. The guards are all white.

Just when I was thinking that there was no way that man was anything other than red, and that we should send them away as soon as…

Hm? Blue?

Seriously? Did Aruna just call him a blue?

Though not as bright as what I saw when we first met, it is quite comparable.

I fell silent as I had never expected such a twist. I certainly trusted Aruna, but this Casdekus person… blue?

The bed-carriage pulled up in front of us as I was still trying to make sense of it. Elden hurriedly leapt from it the moment it stopped and rushed towards us, his belly wobbling as he ran.

「A thousand apologies!,」 he yelled in a shrill voice. 「A thousand apologies! I really do apologise for trespassing into your territory without permission! I had no intention to anger you, Dias-dono… all I wanted was to meet you! The Dias-dono I’ve always looked up to!」

His intonation was rather unique — somewhat similar to the way Peijin spoke.

「My name is Elden Casdekus, but please call me Elden. I’ve heard stories of your heroism and the battles you fought since I was a child! That’s why I look up to and have the utmost respect for you, the war hero Dias-dono! As someone who tries my best to be a good ruler, it’s like a dream come true to be right next to your fiefdom! For that reason, I wanted to get to know you and establish friendly relations… nothing bad, I swear! Please don’t get mad at me — that gaze of yours is scary…」

He trailed off, and he looked so fearful that he was about to cry.

Oh, but I wasn’t mad at him at all…

I guess staring at him had given him the wrong idea.

The way Camarotts acted had probably added to the misunderstanding. That’s kind of bad behaviour on my part, I thought. I scratched my head as I made a mental note to act differently next time.

「I too must apologise, Elden, uh… dono. I’m not angry… just wary of an unexpected visitor. And I have come to realise that I was also rather rude to Camarotts-dono.」

「It’s all good,」 replied Elden as his belly continued to wobble. 「But please spare the honorifics — just Elden will do. Camarotts, too. Don’t worry about what happened just now. I’m glad as long as we can establish friendly relations!」

Now that I had apologised, Elden was all smiles. His attitude and the way he smiled supported what Aruna had told me, and his reason for being here didn’t seem like a lie either. I also wanted to establish friendly relations with the lords of neighbouring fiefdoms.

Though I had many comments about his female attendants and that grandiose bed, I, as an outsider who was in no place to say anything, chose to swallow them. I approached Elden for a handshake.

「By the way, Dias-dono,」 he asked as shifted his glance to the side. 「Who is this ojou-san next to you? She has the same scent as you, so could she be your wife? Please introduce her, then! I have sixteen and I’ll introduce them too!」

The ojou-san next to me? Ah, he’s referring to Aruna.

She’s not my wife, we’re simply enga —

Wait a minute, what did he just say? Can he see Aruna despite her concealment magic?!

「That ojou-san is good at hiding herself. But I have a sensitive nose and a sharp pair of ears, so I know she’s there. Both of you have a good, gentle scent.」

I felt zero malice in his nonchalant speech. His grin was also simple and genuine… but his words still shook my very being. The possibility that people who could see past Aruna’s concealment magic existed had never crossed my mind. Even though I knew exactly where she was, I couldn’t sense even an iota of her presence.

But for Elden to have the ability to do so…

I racked my brain for ideas on how to hide Aruna’s existence or to divert Casdekus’s attention, but came up with nothing that made any sense. As I stood there letting time trickle past, Aruna made up her mind before either of us spoke and dispelled her magic.

Or rather, violently popped into existence.

Elden, not to mention Camarotts and the ladies, stared wide-eyed at the girl with the horn who had just appeared. They were too shocked to muster a single word. Elden was more surprised than anyone else. He frowned, his entire body trembled, and his nose and ears scrunched up.

「Who…,」 he said at last with apparent difficulty. 「Who, or what, is that ojou-san? What’s her name? Her species? And how is she related to you, Dias-dono?」

His voice rose in pitch with each word he spat, such that he was almost wailing by the time he finished his sentence. I kept my guard up due to how strangely he was acting and tried to describe our relationship with words.

「Aruna and I are en –」

「I am Aruna,」 declared Aruna in a much louder voice. 「Dias’s wife.」

Trembling even harder, Elden spoke again as he stared right at her.

「W-Were you born with that horn, Aruna-san? Are you an ajin?」

「As one of the monsterfolk, I was indeed born with it. The term ajin is unfamiliar to me so I am unable to answer that question.」

「An ajin is anything close to, but not, a human. Beastfolk, fishfolk, et cetera.」

「I see. Then I believe I am one of them.」

Elden did not tremble any more. Instead, he froze in place. He did not even blink. Just when I was wondering when he would return to his senses, large tears began pouring from the eyes that had remained wide open.

「Uooooooon, uooooooooooon!!」

Wailing, he ran in our direction.

Assuming that he intended to do something to Aruna, I placed myself in front of her, blocking his way. Without so much as a glance at her, though, Elden flung himself at me and wrapped his arms tightly around my waist.

「But, Dias-dono! Dias-dono! Your child! What about your child? The child of you and Aruna-san is an ajin, isn’t he?」

「Guh… hey, hold up, hold up! Why are you hugging me? Why are you crying? We have no children at present! Relax!」

「While Dias and I have yet to produce children… there are two adopted children in his care who may very well be ajin.」

Aruna?!

Now’s not the time! Shouldn’t you be keeping the twins’ existence a secret no matter how blue this guy is?!

「Are you raising ajin children, Dias-dono?!,」 wailed Elden. 「Your wife is an ajin, and your children, too?! Uooooooon, uooooooooooon! Mummy! Mummy! I found a similar person here! A friend! To think that the Dias-dono who Mummy always mentioned was like this!」

He bawled even more loudly than before, and for some reason, Camarotts and the ladies began sobbing as well, producing a cacophony of wailing. I stood amidst them wondering why Elden was even crying in the first place and tried to figure out what he was trying to say.

But then… something happened that made the current situation seem trivial.

Elden’s ears grew larger all of a sudden.

Actually, ‘grew larger’ may not be the most apt description — it would be more correct to say that they grew rounder but flatter.

That was not all, however.

Elden’s nose was the next to change. Something long — that resembled an arm — grew out of it, extending till it bent and wrapped itself around my waist. Before I knew it, I was lifted off the ground by its tremendous strength.

Thinking about what to do, I looked at the battleaxe in my right hand. Though there was the possibility of me being released if I struck the gray arm with it, I could not bear to strike Elden. He was crying like a baby, and I could not muster the strength to grip the battleaxe properly.

Seeing that I was simply being kept in the air, and that he seemed to mean no harm otherwise, I dispelled any notion of attacking him. Aruna, who was standing nearby, did not look like she intended to attack him either. Her expression told me that she was thinking of a way to get me down.

When he noticed what had happened, Camarotts stopped crying and ran towards his master.

「Elden-sama! Elden-sama!,」 he yelled. 「Your nose! Please retract your nose! Your nose has lifted Dias-sama into the air, Elden-sama!」

Nose…?

I mean, that thing is growing from where the nose should be… but you mean it’s also part of his nose?!

Both Aruna and I, hearing that, were too surprised to utter a word.

Camarotts’s frantic whispering was futile; Elden simply continued to cry. Though he did calm down eventually, it was still quite a while before I was allowed to touch the ground again.