The Wind Calms the Fire - Chapter 6

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 6
Carrion strode forward with a fierce expression, his fists clenched tight.
Yet by the time he reached his office, the turbulence roiling inside him had nearly settled.
He traced back through his own thoughts, trying to understand why he’d let emotion overtake him and storm out like that.
All his life, he had lived in the thick of war—amid the machinations of power.
An emperor juggling five sons, half-brothers scheming to eliminate one another at the first opportunity, wolves in human form clawing for authority…
Those who addressed him as “Your Highness” were often the same ones goading him, and those around him endlessly tested his mettle, always hunting for weakness.
Some even dared brazenly provoke him.
When an opponent crossed the line, he did not rage—he laughed and crushed them beneath his heel.
But today, he had been angry.
‘Why.’
The realization struck him, and he smiled bitterly before dropping into his chair.
It was the first time anyone had ever rebuked him for living that way.
No one had ever said such a thing to him before.
His mother had abandoned the Imperial Palace when he was a child, and he had never seen her since; his father offered his sons no counsel whatsoever.
From childhood, those at Carrion’s side had been servants and guards. After he became Commander-in-Chief, only soldiers bound by military hierarchy obeyed his orders.
The words Leah had spoken—”a Community of Shared Fate walking alongside you”—circled endlessly in his mind.
He cared nothing for power, nor did it matter to him if he fell from the Emperor’s favor.
But if such circumstances brought ruin upon those who followed him as well…
The thought felt worse than drowning in filth.
“Sedrick.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Sedrick, who had been standing at attention with a tense expression, watched carefully for Carrion’s cues.
“How are the preparations for the next Royal Inspection Tour progressing?”
“We are ready and standing by, Your Highness.”
Carrion sighed before speaking.
“There will be no next tour. We’re heading to the Capital instead. I’ve received an Imperial Decree from His Majesty, so I suppose I must make the ascent this time. I will bring the Zephiros delegation along the way.”
Sedrick showed no surprise in his reply.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Merely as an escort. Make sure the Princess understands that clearly.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
After leaving the office, Sedrick paused to organize the situation in his mind.
‘His Highness is reversing a decision he had already made.’
As a loyal chief aide, Sedrick had come to know a very particular weakness in his master.
Once stubbornness took hold of any resolve, Carrion never yielded.
Sedrick had regarded the Prince’s continued defiance of the Emperor’s Decree as a matter of sheer obstinacy.
Yet the Crown Prince had broken that stubbornness for the sake of a princess from a kingdom he’d known only days.
‘Princess Leah of Zephiros…’
Sedrick felt he needed to gather more information and ascertain what manner of woman she truly was.
After Sedrick departed, Carrion found himself suddenly curious.
‘Three worst things. What was the third?’
He should have stayed to hear all of it.
But if he went to see her again just to ask, she might assume he was manufacturing pretexts.
The absurdity of his own thinking made him laugh despite himself.
* * *
‘He doesn’t want to build merit… This is a variable I never anticipated.’
You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot force it to drink.
Leah was troubled.
Had he simply said he disliked marrying her, she might have devised another approach.
‘Why does he have no ambition? How can a capable crown prince lack ambition!’
Nella was harsh in her assessment of her son.
Mothers typically idealize their children, especially when those children are dead—embellishing their memory beyond what was true.
But Nella had spoken only of Carrion’s flaws.
“That boy had the strangest stubborn streak. Once he dug in his heels, he wouldn’t budge an inch. It was that very stubbornness that killed him.”
Leah had harbored some misconceptions as a result.
Perhaps her mother disliked something about him, or had spoiled him too much, or some other such thing.
That was why she had been so startled when she first met Carrion—he was far more impressive than she’d expected.
Leah nodded to herself.
‘No wonder, coming from a mother’s tongue. She knows her son well enough.’
To be honest, she had felt a little excitement before meeting him.
Ten years later, the Northeast Commander was a man whose reputation split every opinion—one Leah had long wished to meet.
Those who spoke ill of him were the wealthy and powerful; those who revered him were the common people. The paradox fascinated her.
Yet he was undeniably a member of the imperial royal house, representative of the empire’s military authority, while she was the leader of nomadic wanderers in rebellion against that same empire. In reality, their paths could never cross.
So when she heard he was dead, she felt an inexplicable hollowness.
After meeting the King of Nortia, she found herself wondering again and again: what if he had lived?
She regretted not having moved heaven and earth to meet him while he still drew breath.
For from what she had observed of his actions, she was certain they could have found common ground.
Yet the man standing before her now proved to be immovably stubborn.
‘I’ll grant he’s handsome. I won’t deny his ability. But what good is any of it? At this rate, he’ll die exactly as His Majesty predicted—killed by that cursed stubbornness of his!’
A knock came at the door, and Peni entered.
“Your Highness. Captain Sedrick wishes an audience with you. He’s the Prince’s adjutant—he was sent to greet us on the road.”
“Yes, I remember. Show him in.”
Sedrick stepped inside shortly after.
He delivered Carrion’s decision: he would accompany them to the Capital.
“What made him change his mind so suddenly?”
“His Imperial Majesty has issued an Imperial Decree summoning him to the Capital. The Prince was deliberating whether to honor it.”
“Two birds with one stone, then. But if His Highness travels with us, I trust that means he will attend our delegation’s audience with His Imperial Majesty as well. He can’t expect the Emperor to believe an excuse like ‘I accompanied them but knew nothing of it.'”
“The Prince would not entertain such an excuse, Your Highness.”
Even after hearing Sedrick’s words, Leah found Carrion’s true reasoning elusive.
‘Why did he change his mind? Could it be… because of what I said?’
If that were true, the man appeared in a different light altogether.
It would mean the Northeast Commander—a prince of the empire—had listened seriously to the bitter words of a princess from a kingdom that would soon become a subject state.
‘Perhaps he’s not quite as immovably stubborn as I thought.’
After Sedrick departed, Leah found her spirits lifted considerably.
Though she had not yet won his agreement to marriage, his willingness to accompany them was something.
One step forward. She could build from there, piece by piece.
As the leader of her nomadic people, she had learned to live ten years seeing no further than the next stride.
Leah decided she would gladly draw water for his horse.
As the sun began to set, Leah walked out into the courtyard for air and found Carrion already there, waiting.
He noticed her at nearly the same moment and stopped, watching her approach.
Carrion did not hesitate to ask as she drew near him.
“Am I not frightening to you?”
“It seems everyone fears Your Highness.”
“In the Northeast, I am the Emperor’s regent.”
“You don’t frighten me.”
‘I know someone just like you. Strong. Beautiful. A benefactor I could never repay, even with my own life.’
Carrion saw in her eyes a fierce, burning intensity—something new and startling against her ordinarily composed gaze.
It was the first violent emotion he had ever glimpsed beneath that calm exterior.
He felt an odd tightness in his throat and turned away.
“I am only accompanying you.”
“I heard. When do we depart?”
“In two days, if all goes well. Three at the latest.”
“I see.”
Hearing the suspicious lilt in her tone, Carrion turned to look at her.
Leah, now walking beside him, spoke again.
“You take your time making decisions, but once you’ve decided, you move swiftly.”
“My decisions themselves are swift.”
Leah glanced at him, then looked away again.
“Of course.”
Carrion interpreted her meek acquiescence as meaning something closer to ‘I disagree, but I won’t waste breath arguing.’
“To conduct a Royal Inspection Tour of the entire Northeast requires decisive action and prompt execution. It should not take days to resolve a single matter like this one. If the Zephiros Delegation had not tied my hands, I would have already moved on to the next inspection site—but never mind. Let us not dwell on it.”
He fell silent, disgusted with himself for making excuses like some petulant child.
“You haven’t finished. Say what you meant to say.”
“I won’t provide ammunition for reproach.”
“Ammunition? Or do you mean that talking too much leads to mistakes, so it’s safer to say nothing at all?”
……
Leah sensed the defensive wall that Carrion had built around himself beginning to show its cracks.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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