The Ripples Spread Further.

Translated by SoundOfDestiny

Edited by Zil

Baron Oigist, accompanied by his attendants, visits a room at the back of the house.

At the front of the room, flanking the door, are two soldiers. The soldier sees the Baron’s face and bows his head.

“How is Jas?”

“The young master is as usual, sir. He is well fed and there is nothing wrong with him!”

The soldier straightened up and answered his master’s question.

The Baron nodded his head and ordered the soldier to open the door.

The soldier unlocked the door and opened it, and a rush of heat came from inside the room.

“Hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh!”

There was a man in the room.

He is naked, holding a simple chandelier hanging from the ceiling with both hands and doing a series of pull-ups.

The Baron wondered how long he had been doing this.

The sweat from the man’s body has formed a puddle on the floor, and the heat from his overheated body has made the room much hotter than the corridor.

Baron Oigist frowned at the heat on his face and called out to the man hanging from the ceiling.

“Jas!”

“Mu...?”

The man’s arms stopped doing pull-ups at the Baron’s call.

He looked down at the Baron’s head from the ceiling and spoke up.

“Oh, father. It’s been a long time.”

With a jerk, the man lets go of his grip on the chandelier.

He lands on the floor, a puddle of sweat splashing at his feet.

“It’s been a month since I’ve seen you father, you haven’t come to see me since I was locked up. I thought you had cut me off.”

“Ghh..”

The Baron gulped.

The man’s words were flat, but to a Baron with a guilty conscience, they felt as sharp as a blade.

The man who was training in the nude was named Justy Oigist.

He is the son of Baron Oigist and the legitimate son of the Baron who would have succeeded him if? he had avoided making problems.

Justy has been under house arrest in a room in the mansion for a month and is not allowed to leave.

“It’s ........ No, I’m sorry. I have no excuse.”

“I don’t mind. I didn’t mean to be sarcastic. So....what is it that you want today?”

“........”

Justy asks, brushing his sweat-soaked hair.

The Baron doesn’t answer, but ponders the question for a moment.

“What can I say?”

It was the invasion of the Alsatian Empire that led the Baron to lock his son up in this place.

After the empire dropped the fortress of Balmes on the border, the noblemen who held lands on the eastern border had to make a decision against the invaders.

Subjugation or resistance?

The decision made by Baron Oigist was subjugation.

He surrendered to the empire without a fight, in exchange for food and the security of his lands.

However, the Baron’s decision was not well received by his son, Justy.

He insisted on fighting the war with the Earls of Arbeil and Baron Ilkas.

In the end, Justy, who would not budge from his position, was placed under house arrest and confined to a room in the Baron’s house.

“I wonder if things would be different now if we had followed Justy’s advice and fought back as hard as Arbeil did at that time?”

The Baron knew that it was no use thinking about it now. But he couldn’t help lamenting it over a dozen times.

He made the decision, no matter how much he regretted it.

“I have to take responsibility for it.”

“Justy, listen to me. Our house, the House of the Baron Oigist, is in danger of being destroyed.”

In the end, the Baron decided to tell it like it was.

The imperial troops attacking the Blaine fortress had been repulsed.

The Royalists had sent troops to the eastern border to purge the traitors.

The Baron of Ulfert has been destroyed by the royal army, and the blade of purge has reached the barons of Oigist.

He has given his son all the information he knows, without concealment.

“...........”

Justy listened to his father’s story without interrupting, wiping the sweat from his body with a water-soaked cloth.

When the Baron had finished his story, Justy opened his mouth.

“So .... what does father want?”

Justy put on a gown, the sweat finally receding from his body.

He then picked up his glasses from the table and put them on his face.

In this way, Justy looks as intelligent as a civil servant.

From the neck down, however, he is covered with muscles that could be described as armour of flesh, and his body is unbalanced, as if he were a different person above and below.

“If father’s life is more important, then you should flee like your life depends on it, take all the possessions and go into exile in the Empire. If father’s life is more important than the lives of our people, he should surrender his lands to the Kingdom’s army. Even though it is now part of the Empire, it was originally part of the Kingdom. Logic, no?”

“Well...”

His son’s words were so plausible that the Baron had no words to reply.

The Baron knew what he was supposed to do but he couldn’t make up his mind.

For a lord, he needed to surrender quietly and seek the safety of his people. In fact, that is what he did when he was forced to surrender by the Empire.

However, in that case, Baron Ogist and his family would have to face a purge should the Kingdom retake the territory.

If those who turned to the enemy were allowed to live, the royal family would be disrespected.

They will certainly make an example of them to prevent another traitor.

“I hope I’m the only one who gets his head chopped off. I made the decision. I am responsible for it.”

But the punishment for treason is the same for the whole family. Not only the Baron, but also his wife and children would be sent to the execution.

It was a future that the Baron could not accept.

“....What would happen to the people if we were to escape?”

“Although we’re currently in truce with the Empire, we are still at war. If we were to flee, the territory would be even more desolate than it already is. Soldiers and mercenaries who have lost their employers will turn into thieves, and confused people will fight over money and food. Even good townspeople may break into merchants’ houses and loot them.”

“...........”

If a lord cares about his people, he couldn’t turn his back to his own people.

He must be responsible for the town until he surrenders it to the kingdom’s army.

The people or the family.

Torn between the two most important things in his life, Baron Oigist could not make up his mind and kept his eyes down.

“Ghhh...”

Pity flashed in Justy’s eyes at the sight of his father’s downcast face.

Although Baron Oigist and Justy had their differences, they were still father and son.

The Baron was still a loving father to Justy.

In addition, Justy does not believe that the Baron’s decision to bow to the Empire was completely wrong.

This is the reason why he didn’t make a fuss when he was in captivity.

“Father,....let’s come up with an alternative, together.”

Therefore, Justy decided to come up with a plan to help his father out of his troubles.

“An alternative ....?”

“Yes, of course. Father will take mother and my brothers and flee the kingdom and go into exile in the Empire. And then – I will stay in the Barony of Oigist and guard it until the Kingdom’s army comes to this town.”

“No ...., you idiot! Then you’re ....!”

The Baron peeled his eyes and shouted.

He was not going to allow his son to play the role of sacrifice.

“If you stay in the town, then I’ll stay! You, too, must flee to the Empire”

“That would make my brothers sad. They’re still children and they need a father.”

When his father tried to press him to escape, Justy firmly said no.

“And the Kingdom Army will never forgive you for turning over to the Empire, but I was against turning over and I even got imprisoned, with that Kingdom’s Army might give me an amnesty.”

“B-but...”

“Many of the soldiers know that I have been at odds with father. It seems to be a rumour in the town, and if the rumour reaches the head of the Royal Army, there is a good chance he will let it go.”

“....”

It was too much wishful thinking.

But when the Baron saw the determination in his son’s eyes, he could say no more.

He bit his lip and shook his fist at his own helplessness.

“Don’t look at me like that. It’s not like I’m going to die.”

Justy pushes up the middle rim of his glasses.

“If it was King Granard, he would have sent us to the executioner’s block, but with His Highness Raidorl at the front, there is room for negotiation. Even more so if, as rumour has it, he has Sven Arbeil as a vassal.”

(TL: Example of a good son lol)