My Wife Waited in the Wheat Fields - Chapter 37: Journey to the Capital (1)

Today, Elric’s worst nightmare had come.

It was also the day that Tyria’s fever had broken and she had returned to her office.

And, in other words, it was the day that news had come from the western battlefields, and with it, the end of the year.

“Three more kingdoms have fallen.”

Tyria said as she read the Western Monthly.

She was right, three more kingdoms had already fallen in that short time.

Each of these kingdoms had been unable to obtain one of the Seven Greatest, and now the battle was down to five kingdoms and one empire who were left to wrestle with each other.

“Isn’t it starting to become stale?”

Elric responded sharply to Tyria’s question.

“It will just become more violent.”

“What?”

“Ah…”

With a start, Elric jerked himself from his stupor.

His mood had been heightened recently by the increasing fierceness of his dreams.

They had been happening less frequently lately, but they were disrupting his life again.

Elric shrugged, then added an explanation.

“I’m sorry for lashing out, I meant to say that now that the easy phase of the war is over, the next few phases will be a lot more violent as each faction tears each other apart.”

“Easy… you mean?”

“Yes. The kingdoms that have fallen were those that did not possess strong men, and now that they are gone, all that remains is a battle between the strong, and so the battlefields will be much more fierce.”

“Do you mean to say that an individual can have that much influence on a war?”

“One need only look at Ygret Chloride to see this fact. The battlefield is ultimately shaped by a few strong powers.”

It was a strange fact, but true.

Although, as gunpowder and steam were invented and studies about them progressed, scholars did say that individual forces would no longer be able to move the battlefield.

But, what about the current state of the Western War?

One spell of a staff or one sword wielded by a superhuman would still rule the battlefield.

That’s why it had been an “easy war” so far.

Battles against nations that didn’t possess one of the great powers were better described as one-sided slaughters.

At Elric’s words, Tyria frowned in disbelief.

Her next words echoed that sentiment.

“But, even if you’re right, if it’s become a battle between the mighty, shouldn’t they be more cautious? I can’t imagine things getting any more chaotic than they are now.”

It was a reasonable question.

Of course, it was far from a sound conjecture.

“It’s because of the balance of power among the strong ones.”

This was something Elric understood better than anyone.

After all, he himself held a place among the Seven Great Powers.

“Ygret cannot defeat the one known as Heaven’s Might. Heaven’s Might cannot defeat the Demon King. The Demon King cannot defeat the Saint, and the Saint cannot defeat the one known as the Goldsmith.”

As he spoke, Elric brushed his knee with his hand.

A bittersweet smile accompanied this motion.

“We’re like dominoes, after all. If one of us were to upset the balance, the battlefield would quickly become irreversibly anarchic.”

For example, if two of the great powers formed a temporary alliance and decapitated one of the others, the war would quickly be over.

The rest of the war would not last more than a single season, and one side would come out victorious in the end.

There could be no truces.

The battle would never cease until there was only one nation left in the western lands.

The goals of the nations that had been at war for twenty years were beyond the point of agreement.

When he had finished his explanation, Elric cleared his throat.

‘Hmm, did I sound too knowledgeable?’

As an afterthought, Elric glanced at Tyria.

She seemed to be lost in thought too, and then she asked the question.

“What about Kasha, the Sword Demon?”

Startled, Elric’s fingertips trembled.

“Oh, you mean the martial artist?”

“”Yes, from what Milord has said, that martial artist must also be a factor in this balance, don’t you think?”

“Haha…”

No matter what he would say next, it would just gild his own face.

Elric thought, feeling a frown creep up his face.

“…No, he doesn’t.”

“Hmm?”

“Martial artists don’t have one thing they’re good at. They consider the circumstances more than the balance of the battlefield. To them, the outcome is determined by many factors, including the difference in the strength of both armies, the weather, terrain, and various other factors in that single moment, do you understand?”

His knee injury was an extension of that fact.

He had been outnumbered and outgunned.

He had been alone against an army of a thousand, and their armor had been forged by the hands of the Goldsmith himself.

The enemy had been charging from the hills, and the wind had been on their side that day, so how could he have gotten out of there alive?

Indeed, it was truly a miracle that he was still alive.

If he had to do it all over again, Elric probably couldn’t have done it any better than he did that day.

“Anyway, it’s an unnecessary worry. The Sword Demon no longer appears on the battlefield anyways.”

As he tried to change the subject, Elric realized that Tyria’s gaze was piercing him.

Elric’s heart sank.

Had she given him the benefit of the doubt?

No. If she had been immediately suspicious of him after he’d told her about Kasha’s disappearance, then she would have been delusionally speculative.

And, as far as Elric was concerned, Tyria was the furthest thing from an instituted patient.

“W-Why are you asking…?”

He asked cautiously.

“Because you didn’t mention anything about his situation. He’s a part of the Seven Greatest, too.”

“Ah, aha!”

Elric exclaimed, looking up in relief.

“The balance of the situation is unpredictable then. Hasn’t he remained silent ever since he started participating in the war twenty years ago? Since there’s no precedent of him fighting against one of the other Seven Greatest, we can’t rush in our judgment!”

The Emperor of the former Great Empire, the one who had started the war.

He had withdrawn from the front lines less than three months after the outbreak of the war and had not engaged in any external activities to this day.

And that was why Elric couldn’t know.

It had been ten years since he’d been active on the battlefield, and less than five since he’d made a name for himself as a powerhouse.

“Oh, whatever!”

Elric trailed the conversation off.

“What does that have to do with us, isn’t the war on the other side of the continent?”

“…Yes, it really doesn’t matter, since we’re past the time of making the trade agreement.”

Tyria nodded in quick agreement.

Elric could finally relax completely.

‘Well, I’d better watch my mouth.’

To pretend to know something just because it was revealed to him was to sow the seeds of doubt.

You have to be careful, Elric told himself.

It was a peaceful time.

Especially in Wyvern, when news from the battlefields was not discussed at all, and the biggest story was that someone’s cow had given birth to five calves.

The same was true of Elric and Tyria’s relationship.

They could look each other in the eye as they went about their business, but the occasional lull of silence left them both twitchy and unable to speak.

It was a strange silence, uncomfortable but not unpleasant, and that was what filled the office today.

“There’s a letter from the castle.”

It was Aldio coming in with a letter in his hands that broke the silence.

The white envelope was stamped with the royal seal, and Aldio’s demeanor as he held it out was one of solemness.

Elric cocked his head.

“From the royal castle?”

“Ah, it’s a letter regarding the New Year’s Banquet.”

Tyria’s response to his question drew Elric’s gaze to her.

“A banquet?”

“It’s almost New Year’s, isn’t it, and as it marks the beginning of the year, all nobles are invited to attend.”

Elric nodded, understanding now that it had been explained.

But he had a question.

“Do I have to go?”

He was reluctant.

It wasn’t that Elric was worried about anyone recognizing him right now, as this was a small kingdom far removed from the battlefields of the West.

However, if all the nobles gathered there, he might get caught up in a personal dispute, and if he lost his temper there, he could attract attention.

Then, if someone were to investigate his actions, they could even come to discover Kasha’s real name.

He wanted out if he could.

He wanted to-

“You can’t. The letter sounds like a recommendation, but it’s more of an order.”

Tyria was stubborn.

“It’s called a banquet, but it’s more like a very basic attendance event that tests your loyalty to the royal family, and if you skip it, you’ll be in trouble.” [1]

“Ugh…”

“If you really don’t want to go, I’ll just have to go alone.”

Elric’s shoulders slumped.

Then he remembered.

“…What did you do last year?”

“I went alone. It was the first banquet since the death of the previous lord, and it attracted a lot of attention.”

Why did it feel like she was pressuring him?

No, Elric knew the true answer.

Rather, it was the fact that she had been going to the capital alone that made him feel uncomfortable.

Even apart from the guilt, he didn’t like the attention it could bring her.

And he wasn’t sure why he felt this way, even to himself.

“…I shall go.”

Elric replied, feeling sick.

Tyria nodded her head quickly.

“That’s a wise choice, then. I’ll have to get the carriage ready, and you’ll need to pack.”

“What? We’re not taking the train?”

“Hmm?”

The two of them exchanged questioning glances.

When Elric cocked his head back in questioning, Tyria spoke.

“…Aren’t they dangerous?”

Elric sighed at the obvious worry in her tone.

He remembered that he had once heard Elvus Grayman say something about her kind.

-”Have you ever met someone who suffers from technophobia, someone who is unsettled by any aspect driven by technological advancements? I had just met someone like that not too long ago. He had said that he was afraid of trains because they traveled too fast and he couldn’t jump off in case of an emergency, or something along the lines of that.”

‘Oh, so it is a real thing.’

Elric looked at her curiously, realizing that someone who thought the analog ways of the old truth were safer was closer to him than he’d thought.

“Let’s take a carriage. If by any chance, there’s trouble on the train, wouldn’t we be unable to respond in time? Besides, it’s not easy to deploy a large escort on a train. It’s not conducive to keeping ourselves safe.”

She truly sounded like a country bumpkin.

And she had spoken quite softly, but for some reason, her tone seemed to be that of a person afraid.

The part of her that hadn’t shown much since they lived in the old-fashioned Wyvern had finally dawned on Elric.

It was a completely new aspect of her that he had just found.