Lord of Rot

The ball was still underway.

Leech’s uncle, Lewis, and his grandfather weren’t participating. This was a ball for the younger generation. They spent their time chatting with old friends who had traveled from afar, sharing amusing stories from the past. Most of the time, however, no one dared to make jokes about the Wisdoms.

The Old Crocodile family wasn’t a topic for casual jokes among their crowd. Instead, they mostly spent their time undermining one another, each hoping their own descendants might win the favor of Bode or Stacy.

As time went on and the ball began to wind down, Lewis grew restless.

His son, Bode, though gloomy in disposition, was meticulous and adept. Becoming a competent lord in the future would be no problem for him.

His daughter, however, was a constant headache. She was more competitive than any man.

He often even told his own father they should forget about family interests. If Stacy took a liking to a common Soldier, so be it. They could just make him a Knight.

But the results disappointed him time and again. Stacy was a charismatic leader with a host of loyal followers, but none of them treated her like a woman.

’Just look at what outsiders call her! A female general!’

’For a noble lady, there was nothing worse.’

A while ago, his sister’s son, Leech, had caught Lewis’s attention. He was a Baron of a small territory and about the right age. Lewis remembered the boy having a very gentle personality, taking after neither his mother nor Lieder. At the time, he had just thought to give it a shot. To his surprise, after Leech and Stacy started exchanging letters, they seemed to get along quite well. If he could set the two of them up, he could both look after his sister’s son and solve the problem of his daughter’s marriage prospects. It was a perfect way to kill two birds with one stone.

Moreover, after nearly six months of correspondence, Lewis discovered Leech was quite remarkable. In a place as dreadful as Porcupine Territory, he had somehow managed to acquire honey and even establish an outward-bound trade caravan.

’Once they’re married, with just a little help from me, Porcupine Territory is sure to thrive.’

Everything was moving in the right direction.

But then Stacy had gone and fought him—and even injured him.

’That’s it, the whole thing’s fallen through.’

He didn’t even have any hope for this ball. If balls were actually effective, Stacy would have been married off long ago.

It felt as if there were a fire burning under his seat; he simply couldn’t sit still.

Lewis got up, ready to go take a look in the main hall.

His father gave him a meaningful look. It seemed the old man shared his concerns.

”If she dares to cause a scene, I’ll have her head,” Lewis whispered to his father.

His father looked at Lewis, and could only let out a long sigh.

When he reached the main hall, Lewis glanced inside and saw Leech and Stacy dancing together. They were holding each other close, smiling, and appeared to be chatting about something.

He let out a sigh of relief. ”Whew.” Gleefully, he turned to leave, and couldn’t stop himself from giving a couple of little hops. ”Family is what you can count on, after all!”

Completely unaware he was being observed, Leech was enjoying his chat with Stacy.

”You’re saying you’ve found the Fishmen’s lair?”

”That’s right. It’s in the marshlands, but the exact location is hard to pinpoint. It’s somewhere north of Linta Bay,” Stacy said. ”It’s like we can never kill them all. A new batch crawls out every ten-odd days.”

”Maybe they’re almost wiped out,” Leech suggested. ”What if they’re just pretending their numbers are endless?”

”I hope so. Those Fishmen might be small and weak, but they’re still very dangerous for the local farmers.”

Stacy asked, ”Still want to fight me?”

”Once I have that kind of power, I’ll be the one to challenge you,” Leech said.

Stacy looked up and stared him in the eye. ”I’ll be waiting.”

’It’s a fact that even with Aina’s help, we probably couldn’t beat Stacy in a straight fight,’ Leech thought with a pang of resignation.

When the dance ended, Leech hid himself in a corner. ’Dancing with the ladies is more exhausting than going to war.’

’Drinking wine and eating berries and pastries—that’s the real point of a ball.’

The ball continued, and there was no shortage of suitors trying their luck with Stacy, hoping to win the favor of the ”female general,” only to be roundly rebuffed. ”Miss Ivory Tower” stood by Stacy’s side, occasionally glancing in Leech’s direction. It seemed the two of them were talking about Leech.

’It’s pretty awkward being the center of attention.’

He turned his head to look at a man on the dance floor, who was dancing with a broad, hearty smile. His skin was on the darker side and his eyes were large; his ethnicity seemed slightly different from the other men and women present.

His attire was even more flamboyant than the outfit the male servant had prepared for Leech earlier: a gold nose ring, gold earrings, a gold necklace, a jeweled brooch, rings on all ten fingers, and bracelets on both wrists.

A walking example of new money.

He seemed to have won the favor of many of the ladies.

Tonight’s ball was a hunting ground for men like him. Judging by how intimately he was behaving with one particular lady, they were likely arranging a rendezvous for after the ball.

”That’s Steed Mama,” Bode said, appearing at Leech’s side.

Leech glanced back at him. ”How does it feel to be fought over by beautiful women?”

”Utterly exhausting, body and soul,” Bode said wearily.

Leech asked, ”Can you tell me about that man? He doesn’t seem like he’s here for the ball. I don’t see a trace of the nobleman in him.”

A nobleman wasn’t just a title, it was a station. Take the hot-tempered man known as Quick-Blade. After becoming one of Leech’s Knights, he had started to restrain himself. He was still crude, but at least he no longer went around slapping ladies on the backside.

”A nobleman?” For once, a look of pure disgust for another person appeared on Bode’s face.

His cousin Bode was a man of universal interests; he would even take good care of a corpse. He believed everything had some precious value. If not in life, then it could be found through dissection after death.

”He isn’t?”

”Since when can a family of horse thieves be called noble?” Bode said. ”The Wisdoms need cheap horses, and Mama City can provide plenty of packhorses, mules, and even warhorses.”

’This group probably has no connection to the East Gorge,’ Leech thought. ’The distance is too great.’

”I remember you mentioned they were in a battle recently?” He hadn’t forgotten his promise to Aina, the Extraordinary Warrior.

”That’s right,” Bode nodded. ”Rumor is they were attacked by some kind of mysterious power. It might have been related to that ’item’ you bought. It’s a real shame she died.”

”It is,” Leech agreed, nodding.

’Dead? Obviously not. But it’s for the best that the world thinks Aina is dead.’

”From what I know, Steed Mama enjoys posing as a desert bandit. You should be glad you’re not in the desert, Leech,” Bode said. ”Otherwise, he’d cover his face, rob your caravan, and maybe even kill you.”

”And no one stops him?” Leech asked, a naive question.

”Who would bother?”

The other nobles need horses, and Mama City provides them on the cheap.

He does his job, the nobles pay their gold. As for the common folk who get attacked and killed? What’s that got to do with the nobility?

”I suppose so.”

’A bunch of shady characters operating in the gray areas.’

The ball finally came to an end. Leech decided he would set out for Porcupine Territory first thing in the morning.